Blackout
by csunwriter
Summary: Aidan Faces a new threat with abilities equal to her own.
1. Prologue

A ton of thanks to Tigre Malabarista for not only doing the beta for me, but for creating a character that caught my attention so much that I wanted to write more of her story. If you haven't checked out any of the adventures of Aidan Hinkley by Tigre, please stop in and do so. If not for her help, you would not be reading this now.

Thanks to Stephen J. Cannell for creating the premise and universe that caught my imagination and taught me that it is 3 steps then jump hard!

I do not own The Greatest American Hero or any of the original characters. Aidan Hinkley is owned by Tigre Malabarista and is used with permission.

Enjoy

Prologue:

"All things truly wicked start from an innocence" - Ernest Hemingway

Pain seared Tyler's cheek once again.

'Just another few days,' he thought "Then it's outta Lake L.A. for good."

Tyler thought back to a time when his father would never have lifted a fist in anger at him. A time in a house filled with love.

That was before the explosion.

The High Desert of Southern California was a hub of advanced aerospace manufacturing. Tyler grew up surrounded by the sounds of sonic booms and jet wash. He loved the thought of flying through the clouds. Growing up, his family lived a comfortable middle class lifestyle. A nice house with lots of room for him and his sister to go out and stretch their imagination. His dad had all the prerequisite grown up toys that living away from the city afforded. There was rarely a weekend when the family was not out with the dirt bikes or quads or headed for the Kern river for a weekend on the boat. It was an idyllic life for the Ellis twins.

That all changed with the downturn following the attacks of September 11th. The aerospace industry continued on, but not at the pace of decades previous. Then the economic recession cost Nick Ellis his job. Like so many other families, bills backlogged as employment was scarce. Federal unemployment checks only went so far. One by one the extravagant items had to be sold just to cover basic expenses. Nick's despair grew as delinquent notices arrived.

Growing up in this area Tyler's dad was not naive to the underside of the small town, nor to its underground economy. The isolated nature of the community provided the ideal setting for illicit activities. Law enforcement had nicknamed the community the meth capitol of California. It was not difficult to find product when you wanted to. Needing money, Nick went looking. the results were devastating.

Prior to that fateful day, The Ellis home was a picture of normalcy. Nick and Mary never allowed the family finances to burden their children. Tyler and his sister had noticed that their dad had been more busy than usual. They hadn't been on a fun trip in months. Mary just told them their father needed to focus on getting back to his old work again. The longer this went on, the more agitated Nick grew. Mary Began to grow worried as Nick looked worse each day he came home. Mary placed her efforts into Tyler and Debra to avoid worrying about her husband. With bills overwhelming him and the bank account empty, Nick turned to home chemistry.

The throbbing of his nose pulled Tyler back to the present. Automatically inhaling, he nearly threw up from the smell of the carpet. Many drunken binges by Nick ended with him passed out here, often in his own vomit. Forcing down the bile caused his nose to shoot pain straight through his head. It didn't feel out of place when he touched it though. A fair amount of blood had poured from his nostrils and mixed with the other contents of the carpet. Tyler strained to pick himself up off the floor and his head spun momentarily. He had to brace himself on the counter to keep from toppling back down. Raising his head, Tyler saw his face reflected in the glass of the cabinet. Crimson streaks crossed his right side where blood had run from his nose. Little bits of fibers and crumbs were pasted to his face. He looked like something out of a horror movie, and a bad one at that. As he picked the carpet fibers out of the wounds near his nose, memories pulled him back to the past once again.

Tyler remembered his mother doing the same thing to his sister. She was washing the dirt and debris from a small scrape along Debra's forehead. Debra had been riding her bicycle out back behind the fence line. A little scrape was the least of the worries out in the desert this time of year. Mojave Green rattlesnakes were plentiful as were scorpions. The ever elusive sink hole swallowed bicycle tires without warning, throwing you straight to the ground. This is what happened to his little sis.

Debra hated it when Tyler referred to himself as the older one. Technically he was, by only 3 minutes. Though, the way Tyler told it, he was far older than his twin. Such remarks only garnered nasty looks from Debra. Laughter was present more often between the siblings. It had been this way since they were toddlers.

Tyler's mother kept a full stock of supplies in the medicine cabinet. This included Bactine. It had a smell that imprinted itself on ones memories. Whenever there was the slightest emergency, out came the Bactine. Tyler heard the sniffling coming from the bathroom and went to investigate. He could hear his mother comforting Debra as she sprayed the disinfectant on her cuts and scrapes. Leaning in the door frame, Tyler saw Debra sitting on the sink with several road rashes on her arm and face.

"Oh sis... That's gotta suck?" he said with a wince. The tears welled up in her sapphire eyes. Spilling over, they left tracks down her cheek.

"Why don't you go get me a clean washcloth?" his mother asked.

Tyler retrieved a fresh washcloth from the linen closet next to the garage door. He could here his dad pulling away in his truck.

"I wonder where he is off to now?"

He turned the corner near the washer and dryer cupboard and was walking back to his and Debra's bathroom.

"Hey Mom, where is dad..."

The room suddenly felt thick and heavy and the world went silent. The searing wind at his back lifted him off the ground. He rushed headlong into the wall at the end of the hallway.

His nose itched. It itched bad, and he wanted to scratch it. Tyler went to fulfill that desire and found he couldn't raise his hand. It was stiff and there was something attached to it. He opened his eyes to see what was wrong with his arm and immediately shut them. The brightness of the room hurt his eyes. A groan escaped his mouth.

'OK, that sucked,' he thought.

Tyler now focused on the noises around him. The room had that empty sound to it. Subdued talking and quiet electronic beeps came from all sides. He opened his mouth to call out hello for someone and all that came out was a small croak. His throat was dry and it hurt to make any type of noise. The effort drained him and he soon was back unconscious.

The next time Tyler was aware of anything, he heard a sliding sound. He opened his eyes out of reflex and quickly blinked. The light was softer and didn't hurt as much as earlier. There was also a woman at the foot of the bed looking at him. When he focused on her, she smiled at him.

"Hello Tyler," she said softly.

Tyler tried to speak and again the croak came out of his throat.

"Don't try to speak now. You've been asleep for a few days." She said as she came to the side of the bed. She took a small pad with buttons on it and pressed on. A voice immediately came back through the unit.

"Yes Lauren?"

"Page Tyler's doctor and let her know that he's awake." She said.

"Of course" came the reply.

The woman turned to Tyler and smiled again.

"You're probably a little confused. Don't worry, you're safe and in the hospital." Her voice was friendly enough. "My name is Lauren and I'm your nurse until the afternoon."

Tyler blinked at the news that he was in the hospital. He had surmised as much with the look of things around him. It was still a bit disturbing to have it put into words.

He wanted to ask a million questions though. And it was as if she could read his thoughts.

"You look like you have a lot of questions in that head of yours," she said, still smiling at him. "The doctor will answer all of them when she gets here." And she picked up the clipboard from the end of his bed.

About 5 minutes later, a woman pulled aside the curtain. She was wearing a white lab coat and had on blue scrubs under it.

"Hello Tyler, I'm doctor Maggie. I've been taking care of you since you've been brought in," she said as she came to stand next to the bed. "I'm glad you finally decided to wake up. Can you talk?"

Tyler opened his mouth and only a whisper came out. He tried again with the same results.

The doctor put her hand on his shoulder. "It's OK, it's not unusual for your voice to be a bit scratchy right now." She stepped back and looked out the curtain. "Can I get some ice chips here?" and turned back to Tyler.

"Now let's take a look at you." And she took out a small pen light.

"Do you know where you are? You can just nod your head for answers right now."

Tyler shook his head to indicate no.

"Well, you're in Palmdale Regional Hospital. Do you have any idea how long you were out?"

And the questions began.

Over the next half an hour Tyler was examined and put through a battery of questions. The ice chips helped soothe his throat. He could now get out some words without much pain. He learned he had some third degree burns on his back and suffered from several broken bones. This was all the result of an explosion in the garage of his house. He learned that he was going to be transferred to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in the morning to begin burn treatments. The one thing that didn't get answered was where was his mom and dad.

Tyler motioned for Doctor Maggie to come close so he could ask her a question. She brought her ear close to his face.

"Where is my mom and dad?"

She stood back up and a look of concern came to her face.

"We'll talk about that in a little bit. Let's finish up with my exam." And she walked out of the curtain for a minute.

His eyes had finally adjusted to being open. He looked around the room he was in. The gentle glow of the day suffused the room. He could tell it was morning. The freshly risen sun gave everything a look of newness to it. He first noticed it while helping deliver papers with his mother. She had always thought the dawning of the day refreshed the desert scenery. Tyler had come to appreciate this aspect of mornings too. It was their special time together. The vivid colors of the land never failed to bring a smile to her face. Tyler thought she glowed just as warmly as the sun. She always thought the afternoon sun gave the desert a washed out and used up appearance. Tyler believed the sun baked the vibrancy out of everything that existed there. His mother tended to agree.

Thinking about his mother brought him back to the room. A lump formed in his chest. He started to put together several things the doctor had said. And fill in the blanks with what she didn't say. An explosion in his house? That look when he asked about his mom? This was not making sense. He could not remember anything from what she was talking about.

Another fifteen minutes passed before doctor Maggie came back in. By her side was the pastor of Tyler's church.

"Hello Tyler." He said.

Tyler glared up at his father. Anger flashed in his eyes. He felt his skin heat up with the rush of blood.

Nick stood towering over the teen.

"Don't just lie there, get up and finish cleaning up that crap you called dinner."

Nick sank back into his chair. The ever present cup of Scotch, Whiskey or Bourbon suddenly appearing in his hand.

Tyler noticed a distinct throb in his left knee.

"Must have gotten that when I fell after that first hit." he thought to himself. "Good thing I'm not trying out for soccer this year."

He really enjoyed playing on the schools sports teams. It was a bonus that it took him out of the trailer. He would have to wait to get settled before he could enroll in college and tryout for a team again. Plenty of time for his knee to heal if need be.

Tyler turned back to the sink and began washing out the pans.

"Hey Boy, get me some more ice." Nick bellowed from across the room.

Tyler turned his head in the direction of the living space. He felt the blood rush to his cheeks.

"Get it yourself," he barked over his shoulder.

Instantly he regretted it.

Nick came off the chair and nearly fell. There was a crazed look in his wide eyes.

"What did you say to me?" his voice was ominously quiet. "Your mother didn't even talk like that to me."

Hearing his mothers name pushed Tyler over the edge. He stopped washing the pan and turned to his father.

"Maybe if she had, her and Debra would still be alive and not dead

because of your lack of being a man!" he screamed and moved out from behind the counter.

"And we wouldn't be here in this crap hole of a mobile home and you would have a job and..." Tyler never finished the sentence.

Nick connected with his son's face. Tyler held fast to the counter. The solid surface helped him remain standing. Bright lights flashed behind his eyes. Pain shot through his temple and his head throbbed. clenching his fists, he felt the cool metal of the frying pan he was washing. Blind fury took over.

Tyler did not remember the swing. The pan connected with Nick's head with a ring. His father crumpled to the floor and was still.

"Oh my God!" was all he could utter. Astonishment flooded him. However, the anger did not abate.

"That's what you deserve!" Spit was coming from his mouth as he screamed. Tyler felt his heart pounding in his ears.

Tyler heard the groan come out like a whisper. Straining, he bent slightly to look for signs of breathing. Now anger was being replaced by fear. Fear of what his father would do if he ever got up again. The shift of his leg and arm accompanied by another groan startled him. This was Tyler's moment of decision. At this point everything changed regardless of which way it went.

Anger won out as Tyler chose to break the cycle. He moved closer to the prone form of Nick Ellis. He drew back his foot.

"Never again!" Gritting his teeth, he let loose with a kick.

Turning to the door, Tyler never looked back. He took the stairs with a leap.

"Screw waiting another three days, I'm out of here now!" and he grabbed the helmet off the seat of his dirt bike.

Speeding along the dirt roads of the Mojave was cathartic. The events of the past half hour played repeatedly in his mind. He pushed aside the sight of his father laying on the carpet. Tears ran down his cheeks. Flashbacks to happier times replaced those of the last moments.

He saw the candles of the cake being blown out for his and Debra's birthday. He saw his mom clapping and whistling for him at his second grade play. He saw Debra in the ballet tutu she hated so much but their mother loved. He saw the funny smile on her face when she got a dollar after her first tooth came out. Then he

saw his mother's coffin being lowered into the Earth. He saw the smaller coffin of his sister resting next to hers in the chapel. He saw his father sitting next to him and could smell the faint remnants of liquor still on his breath.

The anger took hold again as the Sagebrush blurred past him.

"I should have stayed and made sure he wasn't going to get back up." he thought.

He screamed at the heavens at the injustice. He screamed for all he once had and was taken from him.

The ground came up fast. His front tire found one of the sink holes that dotted the desert. He felt himself turn upside down. His back hit the ground hard. His helmet pulled off his head with the impact. In his rage Tyler had forgotten to connect the chin strap. The jolt pushed the air from his lungs and left him gasping. Tyler opened his eyes to a vision of the stars of the night sky.

"Knocked to the ground again."

After a few moments, he was able to draw a shallow breath and noticed his surroundings. The rattling sound at his side sent him into a panic. Growing up in the high desert there are a few noises you learn. The one near his right side was danger. He turned his head and realized his mistake. The fangs pierced his jeans into his thigh. his second mistake was to slap at the sting. The fangs sank into his hand this time.

"Don't move you idiot!" His brain now kicking in.

He forced his body to lie still. The venom was spreading from two places.

"Dumb, dumb, dumb," his anger grew into fury. He realized that it may be the last injustice he suffered.

"I finally get away just to have this happen," he laughed inwardly. "At least I won't have to see that bastard of a father again."

He reflected back on his childhood again. This time the tears were for the father he lost. The time he taught Tyler to ski. Showing him how to fix a flat tire on his bike after patching up a dozen before. Taking him on a tour of the airplanes at the air museum near his work. The time he scored passes to get him to see the space shuttle land at Edwards. He was Tyler's hero. It made his fall that much worse.

It wasn't Nick who failed, it was a father in the eyes of his son that failed

.

Tyler turned his gaze to the sky. The clear view of the constellations from here was spectacular. His mother would take him and Debra out in the backyard and pick out things. His mother loved the stars. He liked to think her and his sister were there looking at him after the explosion.

"Oh look, a shooting star, they're supposed to be lucky," he mused at the irony. He watched it grow larger against the backdrop of the Milky Way. Within a few seconds it no longer resembled a star. It now appeared to be something like a neon Frisbee. Tyler squinted to get a better look at the strange object.

"Didn't think a snake bite would give me hallucinations." The burning in his leg and hand reminded him that he would not last much longer.

The object was coming closer, and he could now see a distinctive circle of lights around a hollow central section.

"This has gotta be some kinda joke," he thought out loud as he now felt the venom reaching his heart. The pain was excruciating.

"At least it's a cool hallucination!" he chuckled, which caused him to wince and gasp.

A bright light shot out from the underside of the ship. It enveloped Tyler in warmth.

'And no one is here to see this with me...' was Tyler's last thought.

The venom took hold and Tyler's heart stopped.


	2. Chapter 1

Aidan Hinkley wandered amongst the students of her 3rd period ceramics class, observing the progress on their latest project - this case an attempt on the interpretation of a musical theme. Aidan loved challenging her students to think outside of the box and encouraged each of them with a gentleness that earned her favorite teacher awards each year. Stopping over one particular student's work, she gave him praise on the organic flow the piece evoked. To the average outsider, the twists, turns and loops would have looked like a mess of tangled chords. But to Aidan, the continuous line of clay represented the simple 5 note passage she played for them at the beginning of the week, growing thicker and looping around each other until it sat at the base of the sculpture, providing each loop its moment while complimenting the whole both in support and composition.

"You have a very unique take on this Tom," she said while gazing at the sculpture.

"Yeah, Miss H... After you played that theme, I went home and watched "Close Encounters" on Netflix Monday night, and this image has haunted me ever since." He made a little laugh at the end.

"Be careful, or you'll end up seeing it in everything, like the Richard Dreyfuss character." She laughed easily with him and walked off to contemplate the others in the room.

_'Little green men'_ She thought and laughed a little harder to herself. _'If they only knew!'_

Aidan saw a reflection of her own life in the loops and curves of the sculpture. Everything from losing her parents in a car accident when she was a child, to the last three years with the red suit seemed to be intertwined in Tom's work. Ever since that day outside her classroom three years ago, she was on a ride filled with twists and loops. First being shot, nearly dying and finally awakening aboard an alien spacecraft were shocking enough. Yet, the biggest shock was finding out her godfather lived a secret life as a superhero. The red costume that gave him his abilities had been passed on to her on that day. She also gained a partner, even if a reluctant one.

Tony Villicana was a former student of Ralph's and an FBI agent. He had trained under her "Great Uncle" Bill, who she learned had been Ralph's partner. With all that had transpired that fateful day, She knew her life was far from normal, but Aidan also knew it all could have turned out far different from the one she has now. It was not long ago when she lived a separate timeline after the Green Guys granted her wish that she had never lost her parents. In that timeline she realized she could have lost so much more.

Shaking off the trip down memory lane, Aidan announced that they would fire the pieces tomorrow and they should begin cleaning up. Hearing the class door open, she looked up to find her godfather trying to slip in quietly.

"Hi Mr. Hinkley" She chimed from her desk. "What brings you to our humble classroom?"

Ralph smiled a warm and easy smile. His eyes always took on a gleam whenever he watched his goddaughter in front of her class. Instead of answering his fellow teacher, he made his way through the tables as the students began cleaning up their areas. He paused at each table to look over the projects of the students. He met each student with a look of interest and a small word of encouragement. It was this quality that had earned him several accolades from the educational field, including Teacher of the Year on three occasions. He believed in treating each student like a person and not a budget figure. This philosophy made him the most effective Principal in the history of Whitney High School.

After finishing his rounds of the class, he spoke. "Well Miss Aidan, do I need a reason to tour my most promising artists and the work they are producing?" he chided Aidan playfully.

"Of course not Mr. Hinkley, we are always glad to have you as a visitor here in the Mosh Pit." Aidan grinned back at Ralph.

She knew he wasn't fond of the name the students adopted for the art lab, but he tolerated it. Despite the implications in the nickname, the art projects created in this room garnered multiple awards each semester. It even earned one senior a year a full ride scholarship to a major art school.

"Everything is all quiet on the western front?" Aidan whispered to him.

"Quiet as a church mouse," he replied. "Just thought as your free period was coming, you might like to go to lunch with Pam and myself?"

Aidan lit up like a Christmas tree. The duties and responsibilities of both her job and the suit left little time for the social niceties. She missed the ability to just sit and talk with Pam and Ralph.

"Try and keep me away!" She said happily and clapped at the class.

"OK now, let's get cleaned up quickly everyone," and turned back to Ralph. "What's the occasion?"

"Nothing special, just got a day when all our schedules came together." He said.

There was a slight smile and twinkle in his eye... the same look he adopted when he was having a hard time keeping news from someone.

_'It must be good news by the look he has,'_ she thought. The bell interrupted her inner musings.

As the students filed out calling out their goodbyes , Ralph offered his arm to his goddaughter.

"Shall we go?" he said with a sense of flourish.

"Now go we in content," she said with a retort. and took the proffered arm.

He and Aidan loved trading Shakespeare quotes when they were younger. They would often do so while walking the halls of the school. Small things like that endeared both the Hinkleys to the students of Whitney High.

The restaurant was nearby and only took a few minutes to reach. They parked near Pam's Volkswagen beetle. Pam preferred the little beetle to a newer luxury car despite drawing a judge's salary. She said it gave her a connection to the humble beginnings of her career as a divorce lawyer.

Pam was already seated and looking over the menu. She rose and greeted both of them with a quick kiss and hug.

"How has your day been?" Pam started.

"Pretty much by the book." Ralph offered, then continued, "Not even one incident of anyone being sent to the principle's office."

Pam grinned and looked at Ralph. "You have what... like five of those a year lately?" She said.

Ralph chuckled and smiled sheepishly.

"Yeah, it has been fairly quiet the past couple of years."

"Don't let him fool you Pam, he is so well liked that no one wants to disappoint him by being sent to him," Aidan added enthusiastically. "They know his reputation of fairness before they even step foot on campus now days."

Before any more could be said, the waiter came and took their orders for drinks and food.

After the drinks arrived, Ralph cleared his throat with some pomp.

"The real reason we are all here is to break some great news."

Perking up, Aidan asked, " I knew it! It was written on your face when you invited me to lunch "

"Well the school has received another recognition for excellence." And Ralph beamed.

"Did you win another award for your graduation numbers the past year Ralph?" She questioned.

"No, not this time." He put on the widest grin he could. "It's one of the teachers this year," he said looking directly at Aidan.

She saw his look and the ice tea she was sipping caught in her throat. There was no mistaking who he meant.

With a little cough she spoke, "You mean I have won some type of award?"

"Better than just 'some award', You have been nominated for California Teacher of the year !" The pride in his voice no longer hidden.

You're kidding me?" Aidan said in disbelief.

"That's so great Aidan honey!" Pam said and rose to her feet, crossed to the other side of the table and gave her goddaughter a hug.

"I'm shocked... I don't deserve it," she said.

"Well you have made some very good impressions with the school district," Ralph said. "And, from what I understand, they have also been flooded with letters from current and former students. You were a natural nominee to the state level."

Aidan felt the heat rise to her face. She was unaccustomed to being placed in the spotlight.

As she was about to protest to Ralph, the lights in the restaurant went out, plunging the building into darkness. A collective gasp came from the patrons and a growing murmur began.

"I haven't heard that we were scheduled for any rolling blackouts in this area." Pam said. "They let the courthouse know well in advance so we can make changes to the schedule."

"Let me take a quick glance around and make sure everyone is alright." Aidan said.

Using the darkness as cover, she quickly unbuttoned the top button of her blouse and exposed the red tunic beneath.

Instantly her sight shifted into night vision. The restaurant was lit with a sickly green glow. This was one of the new abilities that she had discovered since being given the suit.

Without the instruction manual, Aidan had stumbled upon the means of controlling the powers the suit granted her. Unfortunately, she was not aware of all those abilities as she and Tony had blown up the instruction book. Her uncle had told her of all the abilities he had figured out during his time with the suit, but he also admitted that he didn't know the extent of them. He himself had lost the instruction manual twice.

In the case of this ability, Aidan had been on a bust with Tony several months ago when she was plunged into darkness. She strained to see anything in the absolute black and as her eyes became unfocused, her vision changed to a haze of greens and she could suddenly see everything in the room. The sudden shift from blind to sight startled her. With this new tool, she was able to complete the bust without anyone getting hurt. Aidan hadn't figured out how to shift back to normal sight when she walked out into the parking lot with the bad guys for Tony to take in. The streetlamps overloaded her vision causing her to nearly pass out from the instant migraine it gave her. Aidan found this power a useful one once she had taken a few more stabs at it until she felt comfortable with how it worked. With practice, she had discovered more variations on the vision powers including infrared and telescopic.

Nothing seemed out of sorts. The normal disquiet that came with an inconvenience started to mull in the crowd. From what she could see, everyone was all right in the restaurant. She placed a hand on both Pam and Ralph's shoulders and said,

"Everything looks fine in here. I'll head outside and take a quick look around."

"Probably just an over heated transformer." Ralph said reassuringly. "Happens all the time this time of year," and put his arm around his wife.

Aidan stepped outside and winced as her night vision went into overload in the midday sun. Squeezing her eyes shut, she shifted back to normal vision. Blinking quickly, Aidan scanned the area surrounding the restaurant. All the signal lights were out and had not yet gone into emergency mode. Traffic was already beginning to back up as drivers honked at each other. Seeing the problem extended beyond just the restaurant, she walked around to the back alley and changed out of her clothes. Under the everyday slacks and blouse of Aidan Hinkley was the red, white and black costume of a super hero.

Aidan took three steps and leapt into the skies above Los Angeles.


	3. Chapter 2

Tony Villacana sat at his desk on the sixth floor of the FBI'S Los Angeles branch office. The picture windows overlooked the portion of the city that stretched to the Pacific Ocean. On a clear day you could see the thin blue line of the coast off in the distance. Tony gazed out at that line now.

His palm held his head upright. He sat lost in thoughts of nostalgia. In his mind he could hear the waves of the Pacific calling his name. Back in his younger days, he and his friends could be found at any of the surf spots along Pacific Coast Highway. A smile crept onto his face as he further thought of the times he and Rhonda would skip school for the same reason. His thoughts turned to Rhonda and the way she could still fill out a bikini despite having their two kids. Pulling himself back to the office with a sigh, he pulled out the sandwich and carrot sticks she had packed for him this morning.

"Rabbit food," he complained. "Does she think I have to fit in that bikini too?"

With one hand he fished in the bag for a carrot stick and with the other pulled over the latest case file to cross his desk.

Opening the file, he thumbed through the evidence gathered at the scene by the bureau's forensic team. All the previous leads had dried up and this was looking like it would go into the unsolved stack soon.

"Maybe I can get something over to Aidan and see if the suit picks up any vibes off it."

Glancing back out the window, Tony tried to mentally add up the number of cases the suit helped him crack. Since being partnered with the goddaughter of his high school teacher, he had wracked up a substantial closure ratio. The backlog of unsolved cases were slowly diminishing thanks to Aidan. He found the task of keeping under the radar difficult, though necessary. Too many cases too quickly would lead to more than a few raised eyebrows here and back in D.C. Subtle had become the watch word with him lately.

Luckily Bill Maxwell had convinced some of the brass to let Tony remain partnerless.

Maxwell understood the troubles Tony faced with the suit. He was partnered with Mr. Hinkley up until the suit transferred control of itself to Aidan three years ago. Bill routinely peaked his head into the pit, as it was affectionately known. He said it was for "old time's sake," but Tony knew better. Bill just wanted to keep tabs on Tony and his partner.

"_It's just about time for another visit." He mused to himself. Grabbing another carrot, he turned back to his files._

_Caught up in the latest case file, Tony nearly missed the lights in the office start to flicker. As he looked up, they shut off completely. He grumbled as he heard all the office machinery power down as well._

"Oh jeez, they forget to pay the light bill again?" someone hollered from the hall followed by a crash.

"Hey there Junior... Watch where you're going next time there, huh?" Came the snappy retort.

Tony grinned at the voice that stumbled into the room.

"What in the name of Sam Hill is going on around here." The voice continued to thunder with irritation.

Everyone in the pit knew Bill Maxwell in some fashion. A few were trained by him and even fewer had worked with him. The rest knew him as a by-the-book agent that refused to suffer a fool in the field. His results had earned him a large amount of respect despite a gruff exterior. That record lead to the bureau offering him a teaching position when he reached mandatory retirement age.

"Maxwell, stop your huffing and come over here," Tony shouted from across the pit.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm getting there," he grumbled. "Anyone know why the sudden imitation of an eclipse?" he mocked as he pointed at the lights above his head.

"We had to pay your retirement salary, so we couldn't pay for the lights anymore," said one of the guys.

Maxwell smiled and shot back, "Well they do pay by the bust there Jefferson, so you're up to what... three cents a month now?"

The room erupted in roars as the banter that was a Maxwell legend came to bear on his former colleague.

Sauntering up to Tony's desk he pulled the chair from the next desk and sat down.

"You sure put the lid on Jefferson." Tony laughed."

"Been doing that for years now." Bill replied dismissively, then lowered his voice slightly. "What you got in the pike for the suit there Villacana?"

"I was looking at that harbor job that was pulled off last month and was thinking about getting Aidan to holo in on the bad guys."

"Not a bad suggestion, and just the right size job to not bring attention to you," Bill said. "There's a lot of electronics on that list to move very easily."

"We should put out a net over the regional swap meets." Tony thought out loud.

"Naw, that isn't the scenario that these guys operate under." Sitting back into the chair, he continued. "They are a much bigger operation to have pulled off a dock yard robbery. There's a lot of cash involved in that overseas hi-tech stuff," he added.

"Hey you guys." Jefferson was now at the window. "Check out the streets outside."

Bill and Tony got up and went over to the window.

As far as they could see, the city was in a brown out stage.

"Was there any mention of this from DWP?" asked Maxwell to the room of agents.

The murmurs from the crowd confirmed that this was not a planned event. He gave Tony a look that the two had developed over the past few years. With a nod, Tony made his way out of the room, down the stairs, and out to the side walk.

Reaching the street level, Tony walked out to survey the scene. Traffic had come to a stand still. Looking around he saw that all the traffic signals were out. He made his way around the building to check in the other directions. Motorists were beginning to honk at each other in frustration at the sudden halting of traffic.

"This isn't too strange, but just in case," he spoke to himself quietly.

Tony stepped back from the sidewalk and pulled out the small communicator he had procured from the equipment check out.

"Aidan, you there?" he said, then pressed the signal button. This would store the voice message in the other unit until it was convenient to answer should the other person be unavailable. Not hearing a response right away, he turned back to the street.

Off in the distance, the sirens of emergency responders wailed among the skyscrapers of downtown L.A. The longer Tony looked over the lines of backed up cars and trucks, the more he was believing Maxwell and that look he had in the office. This sixth sense that Maxwell had was spooky in Tony's eyes. But it rarely failed in all the times Tony had encountered it. He further learned not to ignore it either.

After a moment Tony's communicator beeped back.

"I'm here Tony... or rather up here," Aidan said.

"Want to clarify that Cub?" Tony chided his partner.

"I'm about half a mile above Van Nuys and looking at one heck of a rush hour nightmare," the feminine voice came through. "I was at lunch with Ralph and Pam when all the lights went out."

"It's about the same here in downtown. Any idea how this may have happened from up there?" he inquired. "Looks like it's city wide."

"Nothing I can see. Just a lot of accidents from the intersection signals being out," Aidan said. "I now understand what they mean about people in L.A. not being able to drive."

Tony felt his cell phone ringing in his pants pocket and quickly cut off Aidan. "Hold that thought Ade."

Looking at the caller ID, he saw that it was HQ.

"_I'm right outside, why couldn't they just come down and not waste my minutes?_" Shaking his head, he answered the call. "Villacana."

"Alright Villacana, you get hold of our friend in the jammies?" Maxwell came back.

"Talking with her now. She just gave me the traffic report from the brownout over in the Valley."

"Good! we just got a call that something went wrong over in the Hoover Dam area. Got a weird feeling in my gut about this. Especially as we're getting calls from across the southland about blackouts." Maxwell let the concern enter his voice.

"OK." Tony said and closed off the connection.

"Hey kid, give a flyby of Hoover Dam. Maxwell just gave us a lead about some problem out that way." Tony told Aidan.

"Hoover Dam!?" she came back with more than a bit of surprise in her voice.

"Yeah, something came into the bureau office here that gave Maxwell the heebie jeebies, and he wants you to head out that way and give it a once over."

"On my way there now." Tony heard the exasperation in her voice and felt a twinge of sympathy.

"Just think, you get to get all super sonic up there, and you know how much you love doing that." He tried to put a smile on his voice.

The sharp click from the communicator gave him his answer.

Tony was ready to jump into his car and head out that way himself, but looked at the traffic jam and sighed.

"It would take me until tomorrow to get out there now."

Like his predecessor, he hated being sidelined in a crisis.

With a huff, he turned and went back into the building. Looking at the stair case, he grumbled to himself, "_Good thing Rhonda packed me those carrot sticks!_"


	4. Chapter 3

Aidan had gained a good amount of control over the suit's abilities during the past year. One of her favorites was the ability to stay in the air indefinitely. In this "hover" mode, she could survey any scene for extended periods. Aidan found combining hover with invisibility made for a highly effective method of reconnaissance. There was a drawback in that the concentration used to stay invisible caused her to fatigue faster while hovering. The first time she used it, she was observing a drug transaction from outside the twentieth floor window of an office high rise. After only a few minutes, she began to feel as though she could not stay aloft and nearly fainted in mid-air. With practice, she was able to extend this to last about fifteen minutes at a time.

Within the small area of the Valley she was able to see, most of the accidents were limited to fender benders. She arrived at the same time as the paramedics on the scene of an accident involving a big rig. It didn't appear to be life threatening as the truck driver was able to walk out on his own. The driver of the car however needed medical attention and was taken out on a stretcher. The beeper on Aidan's wrist let out a series of beeps as she was watching. Deciding she was a little close to the scene, she opted to gain some altitude before answering Tony.

Following the short conversation with her partner, She remained still for a few minutes. Tony sometimes had a manner about him that was nothing short of bossy. He had just ordered her out to the Arizona-Nevada border without so much as asking her if she was okay with it. Since the incident in Big Bear, Tony had made a concerted effort to clamp down on that side of him. It had slipped out a few times since then, but only in scenarios that had him worried. Deciding that it was better to humor him than fight over the communicator, she decided to just get the fly over out of the way. And besides... Aidan admitted to herself she was starting to like the really fast stuff even if it tended to scare her.

Clenching her fists and leaning forward, Aidan began moving forward in the direction of the Nevada-Arizona border.

She had been there once before with Ralph and Pam to take advantage of spring break from college. It was also a major power production center for the Southern region and played host to a hub between the Northern and Southern sections of the states' power grid. A problem at this junction could mean blackouts for more than just a few hours, possibly days. The snarls to daily life would create havoc and cost families dearly in food costs as spoiling would begin if the power were not returned within the next day.

Soaring overhead, Aidan could see that freeway traffic was starting to be affected. With the loss of power, traffic began to back up from the off ramps and onto the freeway. Interstates 5 and 405 were beginning to resemble the parking lots they were nicknamed for during rush hour.

"Gonna be a lot of people bent out of shape today." She thought out loud.

Aidan unclenched her fists and stretched her fingers out. This caused her to pick up speed. A broad grin spread across her face as she felt the shift between sub and super sonic speeds. It was something she desperately wanted to share with the guys from the science clubs in college. They had helped her through many nights of cramming for physics during her freshman year. She still kept up with them through social media. Though she knew she could never tell her former classmates, the smile brightened as she envisioned the look on their faces if she told them she had nearly reached Mach 2.

"Now that would make for interesting conversation at the reunion next year?" She thought.

Aidan saw she was coming over Baker on the I-15. It was an easy landmark to follow by air on an unfamiliar route.

As she passed over the worlds largest thermometer, she was shock to see it dark. It normally droned out the temperature in the middle of the Mojave Desert. The thermometer at the Bun Boy restaurant was also an icon for those making the trip from L.A. to Vegas.

After another minute or two, she was over the state line between California and Nevada. The border town of Primm boasted several large hotels and several more family style attractions. Primm was a favorite trip for those in need of a quick fix for their gambling addiction. It was just as dark as the thermometer. As she closed in, her ears caught the sound of screaming.

"That's strange, the roller coasters should all be non-op."

Using her telescopic vision, she saw that the train of the gold mine coaster at one of the hotels was stalled near the top of its climb with a full load of passengers. The cars were being held in place by the chain drive that pulled them up the steep incline. Yet, this had to be quite disturbing, not to mention uncomfortable to the riders.

With a burst of speed, she aimed straight for the last car in the train. Thinking to make herself invisible, she slowed before any of the panicked riders caught sight of her and the bright red costume the green guys had given her.

It was moments like this she wondered why they chose red of all the colors in the spectrum.

Placing her hands up against the back of the train, Aidan began to gently push the train of cars so that they would crest the hill and make its way back to the station on its own momentum. Watching as the train came free under its own inertia, she nearly slapped her head while realizing she forgot no power also meant no brakes.

'_Runaway mine train indeed, great going there Aidan,_' she thought, groaning as she turned and dove.

As the train took the first corner, she grabbed the last car and put her feet down onto the rails.

A wisp of smoke came up from her feet. "Oh!" she blurted out loud and caused the couple in the rear to turn around. They saw nothing other than the smoke rising from the tracks behind the coaster.

Aidan flinched seeing the couples reaction, realizing her lack of training and experience often lead to minor mishaps. Both of which were countered by an incredible type of luck. This was just such a situation.

The station was plunged into complete blackness as soon as the power went off. Aidan could now let down her invisibility and focus on getting the train to stop. If she could get the train to halt early, she could make a quick get-away. Bracing her feet against the tracks and pulling back with all she had, the train eased onto the entry portal to the hotel station. Letting go, she put back up her cloak. Leaping up onto the platform, she turned towards the portal that had let the train in and took three steps and a hard jump into the Nevada skies.

"The brakes must have locked in the on position." mused Saul from the back of the coaster train.

His girlfriend looked back over her shoulder, but could see nothing.

"That's strange, but I swear that I heard a girl's voice back there," the girl said with a questioning look at her boyfriend.

"I thought so too when we were back on the track, but there's no way someone could have been back there," he said and put his arm around his girlfriend. "It had to be some sort of echo from all the screaming when we seemed to be in freefall,"

"Yeah that's gotta be it," she said, and started chewing on the piece of gum that she had forgotten about in all the confusion and excitement.

As the couple stepped out of the train cars and onto the platform they overheard one of the ride operators remarking about how the cars could have stopped with no power to the braking system. Saul just shook his head and chalked it up to a miracle. He was ready to take a nap before heading out to the nightlife of Las Vegas a half an hour east of here. He took one look at the inoperable elevators and grumbled about the fourteen flights of stairs to get to their room.

Back in the air, Aidan felt a sense of satisfaction. That coaster train could have ended in disaster for the unsuspecting riders.

Aidan made the decision to take a quick flyover of Las Vegas. Hopefully it was fairing better than its smaller counterpart. Climbing to about a mile high, she leaned forward and took a lazy descent into the valley that held the "City of Sin." But upon first sight, it looked more like the "City of Nothing."

Even during the daytime, Vegas was alight. Motion billboards advertised the multitude of nightly entertainment. Whether it was Elton John at the Coliseum, or Cirque du Soleil at the Bellagio, these signs never went dark... ever!

Without power, they now resembled giant gray tiles stuck on the sides of the famous hotels that dotted the Las Vegas Strip. Even the fountains at Caesars Palace were now nothing more than pools of water in elaborate marble bowls.

Aidan surveyed the extent from about three thousand feet. The sight of the city had an eerie quality to it. It reminded her of some bad post apocalyptic movie. The surreal nature of it had Aidan transfixed and not paying attention to where she was.

Without knowing it, she had drifted into the flight path of a passenger jet that was circling McLaren Airport. While the jet had been a few hundred feet above her, the surprise combined with jet wash sent her tumbling. Out of control, she somersaulted and twisted towards the city.

The Statue of Liberty at the New York, New York Hotel and Casino flashed in and out of her vision, getting larger each time. She could tell she would plow into it and the hotel behind it if she didn't make some kind of course correction. Aidan thought if she could go faster it would stop the rate of descent. Thinking of the hotel before herself, she curled up into a ball.

"This is going to suck!" She shouted as she picked up speed.

The change in velocity caused her trajectory to change as well. She watched the hotel pass under her with just yards to spare.

The parking garage was another story though.

With a scream, Aidan sailed through the opening in the 4th level of the structure and straight into a parked vehicle.

She smashed through the windshield and roof of a family sedan that faced the safety rail. Glancing off the trunk, she hit the cement floor like a wrecking ball. She came to rest in an Aidan-sized crater about a foot deep.

The impact knocked the breath out of her. Aidan remained still as she fought the spastic urge to take a lungfull of air. Keeping her eyes close, she felt the need to suck in huge gulps of oxygen slowly pass.

Aidan sat tentatively and gave herself a mental check for any pain. Remarkably, there was none that she could detect. She picked herself up out of the indent and looked back at it.

"Man, that's like something out of a movie," and shook her head at the sight. She genuinely felt bad that she had damaged property and wanted to do something to help in its repair. Yet how was she going to explain any of it to the owners of the garage? Plus, she still had a mission to accomplish.

Finding her way to the open top of the garage, she lined up facing south. Drawing a deep breath, she took three steps and leapt hard.

Keeping low so that she didn't have a repeat of the last five minutes, she also thought it best to use the invisibility power of the suit.

'_Bad enough the city is in a brown out situation, don't need to panic the people along the strip with a flying body_,' she thought.

Aidan wondered about all the people possibly trapped in elevators. She knew she could not help all of them. Not only would that take hours, but the stories would cause further panic.

With a renewed sense of her scouting mission, she stretched out and brought herself to just under Mach one.

Despite her crash moments ago, one of the things she had learned through trial and error with the suit was how to control her speed and direction. She also had frequent talks with Ralph about the things he had learned about the suit.

Aidan figured out that by thinking and acting out the feeling of stretching forward she could accelerate. Aidan found she had to think of herself akin to a rubber band being stretched. She had no idea how fast she could get up to. While practicing a few months ago, she was accidentally clocked at Mach 2 by the Air Force. Tony and Cyler had to pull a few favors to get that incident classified. It also meant the two of them owed Bill Maxwell a favor each.

Personally, it scared her to think about how fast she was flying. It was only recently she worked up the nerve to attempt the really fast stuff. She was learning to live in the excitement that speed brought on.

When she wanted to slow back down, she thought of the band slowly being released back to its normal shape. She still wobbled a bit if she slowed too fast, but could quickly correct for it.

Despite the increased control over flight, she still couldn't get the hang of landing. The one time she tried drifting down from hovering, she plummeted like a rock from fifty feet up. Luckily she was near a sand dune out in the desert.

Lost in thought, Aidan nearly flew past the Hoover Dam. It was impressive to say the least. Not only was it one of the largest dams in the U.S., but it also provided a large portion of power to the Southwest U.S. by harnessing the power in the waters of the Colorado River. It was a monument to human achievement.

Aidan saw the dam had been cleared of traffic. Cars on both sides were being turned away and the gates at each end had been lowered. This was a routine cautionary measure whenever a problem was detected. She could see no problems from her vantage point out above the artificial lake the dam had created.

Aidan waited for the cars to dissipate before she flew out in front of the dam for a look at the structural face. Any damage might not be obvious to the naked eye, but it was also necessary to get a better look at the generators.

The thought of the dam itself collapsing sent shivers down Aidan's spine.

"I can only imagine the type of damage that would happen if you were to go, Old Man." She said to the dam. "So, what seems to be your problem?" and shifted her focus.

Another of the powers she had discovered in the past year, along with night vision, was by squinting a bit, she could shift her vision into the infrared spectrum. At a range of half a mile away, Aidan could see the heat signatures of a couple dozen power workers. They were frantically scurrying around the generators. Aidan made the assumption that it was to get them back online again.

Her infrared vision was sensitive enough to make out individuals through the concrete and iron of the dam. The generators themselves, each standing several stories tall, were nearly as cold as the surrounding air. This meant that they had been out for long enough to dissipate any residual heat. While admittedly she didn't know much about dam construction, everything seemed solid. Aidan deduced that the problem had to be with the generators themselves. There was nothing here she could really do.

Pulling the sleeve of the suit up a little, Aidan exposed the communicator watch that linked her to Tony.

"Tony, you there?"

Floating in a light breeze coming off the man-made lake on the far side of the dam, Aidan breathed in the smell of the water and relaxed a bit.

"Yeah Cub, What's your 20?" He asked.

"I'm out here and looking at Hoover now."

"Any idea what the scenario is out there?"

"All the generators are off line and it looks like department of power is on it," she reported. "The dam itself looks solid as the day they built it."

"All the generators as well?" Tony inquired.

"Yeah, it seems they have been out for a little bit too, because they look to be almost completely cold."

There was a silence that lasted several seconds more than Aidan liked.

"Tony, you take a bathroom break?" Aidan chided through the communicator.

"It seems a little suspicious that all the generators went offline at the same time," he said with a little curiosity laced in his voice. "I did a report in Mr. H's class on that dam back in the day, and while I admit I wasn't book smart I do remember, it has multiple safeguards against that scenario happening."

Aidan gave an inward chuckle which slid into a frown. Tony had used the word "scenario" twice in a short conversation. Either Maxwell had been rubbing off on him more than usual lately, or something was prickling his own sixth sense.

"So this is a bad thing?" She probed.

Aidan knew a little about power generators from her association with the nerd-herd guys during her college days. But the specifics of the dam was beyond her.

"There is something not kosher about this out there Ade," his tone betraying his concern. "That should only happen if the units are deliberately powered off, or are damaged to the point of not working."

"But if one was damaged, the others would still be working, right?" Aidan asked.

The next thing out of the communicator sent a chill down Aidan's spine.

"You said they're all cold. That's what has me worried."

Aidan stared at the structure with such intensity and concentration that she never saw the black streak that hit her.


	5. Chapter 4

Tony took his time returning to his desk. His mood had taken a slight downturn. Not only was he irritated with having to climb six flights of stairs, he could not shake the feeling that something was off. Reaching his desk, Tony found Bill seated in his chair and thumbing through his case files.

Maxwell looked up at him and his forehead crinkled. Rising he walked past Tony and quietly said, "Follow me."

The elder agent ushered him into a vacant office off the main corridor. Bill casually sat in the chair behind the desk and smiled at Tony as he laced his hands behind his head.

"Sit down there Villacana," motioning to the chair on the opposite side of the desk. Tony slumped into the seat with a thud.

"Now what did Artie have to say?"

Hearing Bill call Aidan "Artie" lightened Tony's mood a bit. Bill was always one for nicknames over a person's actual name. Only Ralph seemed, for the most part, to be exempt from being designated by his last name or some other term Bill found easy to remember.

Tony eased the frown on his face before answering.

"She was already up over the Valley by the time I called her," he reported. " She said she was heading out to Hoover and then disconnected."

"Great! then we got nothing to worry about," said Bill as he visibly relaxed.

Looking at Tony, it wasn't difficult to see the conflict going on within him. The air between them was thick with it.

A silence stretched out for a few minutes as Bill waited out the younger agent.

"I saw the way you came into the Pit," Bill started. "I've sseen that face more times than I care to count."

Bill straightened a little and brought his hands, still laced, to the top of the desk. Leaning forward, he continued. "Your partner is out there in the field, and you're sidelined by circumstances."

Bill stood and slowly made his way to the window. The afternoon sun was glazing the city with rays of amber. Looking out the window, his eyes took on the same amber glow. The cityscape reflected in the moisture of his eyes. It was as if Bill were gazing back in time.

"You want nothing more than to jump in your car and speed off to get there and help in any way you can."He drew in a long, deep breath before continuing.

"It's eating you up to be here when she is out there doing who knows what."

The older agent broke from the view out the window and turned towards Tony.

"Right?" Bill said, raising his eyebrows inquisitively.

Tony sat breathing for a few minutes before matching the gaze of the more experienced man. He rose slowly and walked to stand next to Bill while taking up the stare out into the sky above the city.

Not breaking his line of sight with the horizon, he started to speak quietly.

"You know... there are days when I want to punch that alien in his green pie hole," and closed his eyes.

" How did you do it for all those years?" Tony rubbed his face out of reflex. "It drives me crazy when she goes out there and I'm not in the middle of the action with her," he turned his head at Bill. "And, I hate to admit it, but I have this bad feeling in the pit of my gut."

The two men stared at each other. Each with a look that told the other they understood what was on the others mind. These two men were unique in the world. Each entrusted by alien beings with the secret of a super suit and safeguarding the person chosen to wear it. They were members of an exclusive club with, to their knowledge, currently only two members.

In the early years of their partnership, Bill and Ralph had been kidnapped by a reclusive billionaire. It turned out that the man had made his fortune by abusing the powers in a suit given to him by aliens. The man named J. J. Beck was nearing the end of his life and wanted to make amends for his greed. He needed Ralph and Bill to recover his will that gave his fortune to charity. At the end of it all the green guys showed up and Beck had gone with them for good. The man's partner had gone with him continuing the partnership to the end. The thought of being taken by the aliens rather than being buried still kept Bill up at night. Bill still carried the memory of the weight bore by Dunn's face over the choices he allowed Beck to make under his watch.

"Yeah kid... I know." Bill said reminiscently.

The two agents, linked together in so many ways, simply stood in silence for a long while, lost in there private world.

Bill was just about to say something when the communicator on Tony's wrist chimed. Aidan's voice was a welcomed sound cutting through the oppressive silence.

Bill listened intensely as Aidan described the situation out at the dam. He was also a little surprised at the amount of knowledge Tony had retained from his days as Ralph's special ed student. There were days when he considered the way he had treated Tony as a common criminal back then. He often wondered if the harsh treatment pushed Tony to be the agent he was today.

Bill saw the look of worry fall over Tony. Something was definitely not right out there. The things he was able to gather made this scenario an unnatural occurrence. What happened next caused Bill's lunch to lurch in his gut.

Tony heard the loud crack through the communicator.

"Cub?"

A second sound came through the unit. It was like something smacking against a hard surface. Then the signal went dead.

"Aidan!" Tony shouted into the watch like device. When nothing came from it, he hit it several times with his hand.

"Now, calm down Villacana," Bill said in a somewhat irritated tone. The only thing you're gonna accomplish is to break that thing."

The younger agent's expression darkened as he looked up at his former mentor.

"Maxwell, you heard that sound... and it didn't sound good!" Tony was near frantic at this point.

The memory of finding Aidan trapped in her car a year and a half ago flooded Tony. The visions of that day haunted him deeply and Rhonda had found him sitting awake, drenched in sweat, on a few occasions.

The incident at Big Bear had signaled a turning point from both Aidan and Tony in their relationship as partners. Aidan had began to experiment with the suit and the things she figured out it could do. She also made a concerted effort to spend more time with Ralph in the time since she was released from the hospital.

On Tony's side, he became thoughtful of the assignments he passed her way. He realized that he had been treating her like a resource at his beck and call, rather than a person. The two were beginning to find a harmony and balance to their partnership.

"We gotta get out there, like now!"

Bill put his hands up, Trying to calm the obviously worried agent. "I know there hotshot, but we gotta use our brains here."

Tony began pacing, and in the small room, it was no easy task. This immediately got on Bill's nerves, as Tony stepped on his foot each time he came to his side of the room.

"Now look Villicana, quit using my feet as piano pedals and listen up. You gotta get your head together if we're gonna do anything for Artie out there." Grabbing the taller agent by the shoulders and squaring him off, "Got it?"

Tony blinked several times as if trying to process what Bill was saying and then sighing as his eyes regained focus.

"OK then Maxwell, what's the scenario you got cooking upstairs?"

The gleam in Bill's eyes told Tony that this was going to be a doozy!


	6. Chapter 5

The impact with the cliff had Aidan seeing stars.

"It sounds cliché', but did anyone get the license plate on that diesel truck that hit me?" She said, and experimentally shook her head to clear the cobwebs.

"It wasn't exactly a diesel." said someone.

The sight in front of her caused her to gasp. Her mouth went dry and left her speechless.

Hanging in midair a dozen yards in front of her was a boy.

Who ever he was, he looked to be in his late teens or early twenties. But most shocking was his outfit.

He was dressed just like her with a few differences. This suit was all in black. The silver border of the cape was of a different pattern than hers. He also had boots instead of the dress shoe with stirrups she wore.

The symbol emblazoned on his chest however, was identical to hers.

"It was me," and he grinned at her with a gleam in his eye.

Aidan inhaled deeply and coughed from the dust that was suspended in the air around her. She began to move and immediately froze. She was positioned in a depression that formed the shape of her body and was incredibly far off the ground.

"Now that's something I didn't think would actually happen," The man commented as he floated closer to her. "I mean it's kind of cartoony, don't you think?" and laughed wryly.

The image of this new person brought back the time when Kevin, her brother through Ralph's failed Marriage, was about to marry a woman named Nicol. The woman turned out to be a toddler from the same race that gave Ralph the suit.

Finding her voice again, she asked. "Who are you?" A slight tremble betrayed her emotions

"I'm the new guy on the block." He said.

The black suit crossed his arms casually and then placed one hand on his chin.

"And you are..." He tapped his chin in mock contemplation, "the one who is going to try to get in my way!"

Aidan's mind went into overdrive as she saw the stranger in black straighten in a pose of resolution.

With a quick movement, he launched himself at Aidan with his fists outstretched like battering rams.

Aidan acted on instinct and went limp. She slid feet first and free of the rock face just as the stranger hit the spot where she was at seconds ago.

The fall was temporary as the suit acted like she had taken her three steps and lifted her into a hover mode. She felt the shock wave from the impact of the stranger meeting rock above her by less than a yard. Not taking time to rest, Aidan placed her feet against the stone granite of the cliff and pushed off.

Tyler never liked the thought of having to hurt a girl. However, the green guys made it clear that if he was going to share in the rule of the Earth, she had to be eliminated.

"_No one is ever going to stand in my way again,_" he thought. Still he had no real argument with the girl in the red suit. "_I never asked her what her name was,_" he continued in his head. None of that mattered however. It was only a minor distraction in his mission. He was determined to take down all obstacles on a path to justice for all. Tyler knew it was a daunting task, but with the power suit, he had the power to do it. He had the power to make sure nothing bad ever happened to people like his mother and Debra. That those who hurt others would pay for their crimes.

After waking aboard the alien spacecraft three weeks ago, a green skinned alien had greeted him with a promise of a new life. The alien then showed him the state of the world and gave him a power suit that bestowed him with abilities to change the future. Tyler was placed on a bed and fitted with a band around his head. Tyler was given a crash course in the basic operations of a power suit. The alien explained that he was to save the world and set it right. He then showed him the girl in the red suit that would oppose him.

The alien told him that this girl was given a power suit to keep things on course towards destruction. By allowing things to stay in place, it was assured that the world would eventually reach a critical point and self destruct, wiping out all of humanity in the process.

The alien then left him back in the Palmdale desert and told him to try out his new powers. He could start by bringing justice to his own family. With that, the ship rose into the sky and shot off towards the horizon and the star filled sky.

Several days later, Tyler looked down on the trailer he once called home. It seemed like a lifetime ago since he had been there. He felt nothing inside himself as he gazed at the bulk of sheet metal and wood framing, and he took no pity on the sole person in the residence.

He tuned his vision to see into the infrared spectrum as the alien had instructed him and was pleased with the results. It was like the walls no longer existed and he could see the figure of his father sitting in the recliner. The blue dot in his right hand must have been more alcohol with ice and he could see that the stove had recently been used.

"_This is way cool!_" he thought with a bit of excitement. No longer thinking of the fact that he was hovering nearly a hundred feet above the ground. The attention span of a teenager pushing aside the things he was getting used to. The first flight was the scariest thing he had ever felt. Even more scary than the rides at Six Flags, and more exhilarating at the same time. The rush of air as he cut through it became second nature as he followed the instructions the alien had given him. He also had an instruction book that was tucked safely in a case that the suit could be stored in. Tyler then placed it in a cave that he knew about not far from where he was dropped off by the alien. He was sure that no one else knew about the little hole in the side of a hill where he would play when he was a little boy. It was his fort in many childhood make believe games; the ones where he was a hero and this was his secret lair. Little could he ever have imagined that it would come true in a sense.

Concentrating on the red spot of the stove, Tyler focused on it becoming hotter and hotter, brighter and brighter. Suddenly, the red spot spread across the whole of the mobile home. He saw the form of the person inside get thrown out of the recliner and onto the floor in a corner of the house. Tyler saw the red engulf the figure and then it twitched violently for a handful of seconds before becoming still. He shifted his vision back to the visible spectrum and saw the smoke coming from any opening in the metal construct that it could find. In a matter of a minute the entirety of the mobile home was engulfed in flames. He gave a slight push up with his feet and climbed another two hundred feet in the air to see the surrounding area. He heard a fire alarm in the distance and could make out the red swirling glow of a fire truck emergency light. Tyler saw that it was only a few minutes away and wanted to make sure that the only thing left of his former home was a smoldering frame. He leaned forward and dove for the entrance of the mobile park. Finding nothing near the street entrance, he resorted to the next best thing. He landed next to a utility pole that serviced the park with electricity and phone service. Placing his hands on the broad base, he drew in a quick breath and held it. Tyler was surprised by what little resistance the wooden pole gave to being bent and snapped near the ground. Not only did the downed pole effect a barrier to getting into the park, but it also plunged the entire area into darkness. taking three steps and jumping hard, Tyler rose into the night sky again to observe the chaos he had wrought against those who had hurt him. swearing that this was only the first of many, he reoriented himself and flew off towards the site of the cave to rest.


	7. Chapter 6

For the second time today, Aidan was somersaulting through the air. Ironically both times were to avoid colliding with another flying object. Gaining control, Aidan swirled in mid-air and faced the direction she had just come from. The boy in the black suit had hit the surface of the cliff and had lodged his outstretched fist up to the wrists into the rock face. Blinking at the sight, she thought of what the outcome would have been should she not have moved on instinct. She watched as he placed his feet flat against the rock and pulled at his hands. The sound of the rock cracking and crumbling as a result of his ministrations echoed throughout the Colorado River valley. With a final thunderous explosion, a large chunk of the cliff came loose and plunged towards the ground. The boy did not fly back as Aidan had thought he would, rather he floated slightly up as if he were a feather on the gentlest of breezes.

Aidan followed the car sized mass of granite as it hurled down to the bank of the river below. In an instant Aidan saw that it would hit one of the sub-stations that housed instrumentation and monitoring equipment for the dam. Knowing that in the midst of such a power crisis, it had to be fully staffed in an attempt to assess the reason for the power disruption. Without a further moments hesitation, she angled her head down and fell into a power dive aiming for the rock. Stretching her fingers out she picked up speed and managed to over take the rock. Now under the boulder, she pushed against the underside with every bit of strength she could muster. Her faced strained under the might of gravity and such a solid mass of rock. In her mind she saw herself moving a mountain and felt the giant rock shift with her exertion. With the speed of thought she mentally patted herself on the back for saving so many innocent lives.

"Not yet." she said to herself through gritted teeth. Redoubling her efforts, the boulder shifted further away from the danger zone of impact. The sound coming from behind her gave her only a moment of recognition before she was crushed against the rock.

The force of the strike as the black suit hit her was enough to not only change the trajectory of the stone, but also put a slight rotation on it. Aidan was flattened against it, but managed to maintain consciousness. So she was wide awake as she felt the arms wrap around her trapping her own arms down and against her sides. The grip was like being encased in iron bands and allowed her to breathe, but little else. Aidan struggled against the grip of her opponent with no noticeable effect. No matter which way she twisted or turned, she could not break out of the vice-like clamp he had on her. Realizing that she was getting nowhere except on a fast track to exhaustion, Aidan relaxed while keeping a mild bit of tension so as to not be crushed.

"You should at least introduce yourself before you give a lady a hug." She quipped. "The old club and drag routine went out with the caveman."

"You think you are so funny." he said into her ear. Well we'll see how funny you find this."

Before she knew it, she was headed straight for the dam, still wrapped in the arms of the black suited stranger.

She registered the sound of the boulder that she was under only a moment earlier make its impact with the river below and hoped that it didn't cause any major damage to the electric facilities. Aidan couldn't turn her head in that direction and it added to her frustration. She attempted to twist her way out of his grasp and succeeded in wiggling her arm up and releasing her elbow from his embrace. She glanced up and saw he was making like a cruise missile at the face of the dam. It became clear he intended to use her as a battering ram against the side of the Hoover Dam. Horror washed over Aidan adding to her frantic need to free herself. The adrenaline added to the suits augmented strength and Aidan wrought free her right arm with a slight wrenching feeling in her bicep. With the dam looming close she pushed her fist forward and then reversed the motion and brought her elbow back squarely into her assailants face.

With a howl of pain, and a satisfying crack of cartilage, Aidan was suddenly free. She was still in danger as momentum carried her towards the face of the dam. Aidan put her arms up in front of her face to protect her from the impact. With her eyes closed, she heard the sound of the stranger passing above her, sounding out of control. Risking a peek at him, she saw the black suit less then arms reach from her. He was reaching towards the sky as he rotated around his vector of flight. Without losing her own spin, she saw him correct his flight and move into a climb position. Without thinking, Aidan reached out and grabbed the stranger's ankle. The action halted her spin with a jerk that reinforced the strain in her upper arm. With the dizzying motion over, she felt and saw herself being towed up. With a mere dozen or so feet left before hitting the dam's concrete surface, they were making for open sky.

Tyler was steaming at the thought of that girl getting out of his arms like she did. The throbbing in his nose and around his eye was going to last for a while. He would use the pain to focus on his mission. Tyler's first step was to rid the planet of this other suit wearer.

Aboard the alien spacecraft, Tyler was told of the red power suit. The alien explained that another faction of their species gave the suit to another human to keep the planet on a course towards destruction. Tyler learned the alien host had tried to provide leaders with technology to save the planet, only to be blocked by the person in the red power suit. Tyler was lastly given the mantle of savior to the Earth and his first task was to eliminate the other human in the suit. After, Tyler would be granted stewardship over the planet to dispense justice as he saw fit.

Tyler needed to slow and think about how to get out of this.

'What was it the alien had said about getting control of vector flight?' Tyler's thoughts raced. Then it came to him. The alien had told him that in order to gain the best results while flying was to relax as much as possible then think about where you wanted to go and reach out for it. It had also said that the mind was more in control of the power suit than was the body. If the mind was afraid or unfocused, then the suit would act erratic. It would not obey commands that he wanted no matter how hard he wanted it to work. He also said that very strong emotions could act upon the suit, but it would deplete the bodies energy reserves rapidly.

Hearing the inner voice, he relaxed his body and reached out with his hands. It was a strange sensation that came into his outstretched palms, sort of a tingling at a certain point of his rotation. By the second time he felt it, he made a conscious thought to reach out for the spot where he felt it. Immediately he felt his rotation slow. He stretched for the spot again and his flight pattern straightened out. He saw the girl still tumbling and she was covering her face with her arms.

'_I wouldn't want to see myself hit the side of a cement wall either_,' he thought to himself and mentally pushed off into the air towards the top of the dam. He had to focus so he wouldn't hit the wall himself. While he was no longer out of control, he still had inertia to deal with. Redoubling his efforts, he started to climb out of the river valley and clear of the dam.

He made a mental note he hadn't heard the impact of the suit girl. Tyler chuckled inward. "Suit girl, I like that," and laughed inwardly again. As he cleared the top of the dam, he turned to look for the falling body of his adversary and any damage her impact had caused.

He nearly shouted when he saw the red suit girl hanging onto his boots.

"How did you get down there?" he screamed at her.

As he made a stomping gesture to shake her off he was thrown off balance as his feet came out from underneath him. His view of the sky above began to spin rapidly and suddenly Tyler was looking at a whole lot of water.


	8. Chapter 7

Aidan saw her opportunity the instant it appeared. She grabbed the black suit's other boot as he tried to shake her off. The motion caused him to tip backwards. She had hold of him by the heels and envisioned herself spinning him like an Olympic hammer throw event.

Her body went into motion, spinning with her at the center. Aidan felt the pull on her arms as she spun him through the air. She let her body relax back into the momentum even as her shoulder howled in protest. She was surprised how fast she picked up speed, and after only about three full rotations, they were spinning fast enough the two were a blur to anyone that could see them. Time slowed as she plotted the release of her foe. She saw just the right moment to let go. Releasing her grip, her foe sailed upside down and head first into the lake.

The inertia spun her out and up slightly. She regained control just in time to hear the screams of her foe drop off and then muffle completely as he disappeared into the lake with a splash.

"Oh my goodness!" She let slip from her lips. "I've never tried the suit underwater before," and then thought back, "Except for that time I knocked that guy out in the fountain when Dylan wanted to reunite with me." Aidan shivered a little remembering that confrontation.

Her cousin - an Onyxsard, from her dad's side of the family, wanted to "reconcile" with her and become family again. After a series of attempts on her life, she found out the man was trying to kill her to get her inheritance from her grandmother on that side of the family.

Aidan pushed off and landed roughly on top of a cliff overlooking the man-made lake. Looking down at her dusty suit, she wondered how she was supposed to clean an alien fabric. In all the years she had possessed it, she had never had to clean it. Strangely enough, she couldn't remember any time when it had so much as a scent of body odor despite going through some ordeals that left Aidan sweating. Looking at her sleeve, she thought to call Tony and let him in on the events of the past few minutes. Pushing it up however, she saw that the communicator was a complete loss. Crushed, most likely, by her impact into the cliff face at the beginning of the fight. She would have to fly back to L.A. and brief him in person as to what went on.

With a slap to her head, she thought about the absurdity of what she was thinking.

"I just had a knock down, drag out fight with a guy in a black super suit," she said with a slight laugh, "and here I am treating it like the usual bust of bad guys." The strangeness of it all got to Aidan. "Like Tony is going to cuff this guy and haul him off to jail!"

Looking at the water below her, "I must be going into shock... How am I even going to begin this one?"

She thought of how this was as far from ordinary as getting the suit was in the first place.

"And I can only imagine what's going on down there. Am I going to have to go fish him out?" Then the true realization hit her as she remembered the suit didn't always protect her head. "Is he even alive in there?!" Panic began to overcome the minor shock that she was suffering from. Aidan shifted her vision and attempted to gain a hologram of the black suit under the water. She was reluctant to go in while not knowing how well the suit worked underwater. Her own sense of morals fought their way to the surface of her mind.

With a new resolve, she began to take three steps just as a large black shape shot out from the waters of the lake.

The primal scream that came from the black suit was bone chilling. He shot straight up followed by a column of water behind him.

He floated above the surface of the lake almost in front of Aidan. His eyes narrowed when he found her on the cliff and those eyes burned with rage.

The dark flyer lifted a dripping hand and pointed straight at Aidan. He dropped both hands to his sides and closed his eyes. Lifting both arms straight out from his sides, the lake waters rose in time with his motion. A great rumble came from the blue water as it fought gravity. Tyler brought his arms up to point up into the sky. His body trembled with the rising wall of water around him and his face lifted with the exertion. The sight was ominous in the power that seemed to be emanating from a single person.

His face lowered and his eyes opened to bore straight into Aidan.

Tyler flung his outstretched arms forward with all his enhanced might. His floating body curled into a ball at the effort to move so much mass. Aidan heard him groan with the strain he felt.

Frozen in place by the pure spectacle of it all, Aidan knew she had to move a moment too late. "_Damn!" she thought as _she backpedaled to get out of the path of the tidal wave.

The wall of water struck her with the force of a speeding semi-truck. The wave swept her off her feet and sent her careening across the top of the canyon walls.

Aidan tumbled with the currents of the artificial tidal wave. She could not tell which direction she was going, or even which way was up. The best she could manage was to focus on holding her breath while she was in the midst of the torrent.

The sudden sensation of freefall caught her by surprise. Thousands of gallons of water had pushed her into a small canyon. Amidst the temporary waterfall, Aidan fell to the floor of the gulley. The ground came up hard and fast. The short drop was nothing harder than most landings. Still, Aidan remained motionless for a few seconds. When she finally decided to move, she felt like a drowned rat. The waterfall was still raining down upon her. She rolled towards the wall and under the falling water.

Shaking her head in disbelief, she thought out loud. "This can't be happening!" Aidan stumbled to her feet. "This guy is just as powerful as I am but seems to have better control over his suit."

Aidan finally took note of her surroundings. Looking up, she saw that she was in a naturally formed grotto. Aidan shook her head, clearing it. She knew she was in trouble, and needed help.

"I have to get back and talk with Ralph, Bill and Tony... Especially Tony."

Not only was she not sure where she was, she also had no idea where the black suit was either. Staying was not an option. Flying out of the canyon meant she would be exposed to the black suit. Seeing that the canyon stretched for quite a distance, she decided on taking to foot. Choosing the direction opposite of the waterfall, Aidan began to run the length of the canyon.

Aidan quickly covered a mile in a matter of seconds. Besides the stealth aspect of running through the canyon, it also helped dry out her suit in the Arizona heat. Slowing down, she went quiet to check for signs of her pursuer. Hearing only the silence of the desert, she decided to risk taking to the air.

The black suit and its wearer had proven to be a match for her. She had to avoid him and make her way back to L.A. fast. Aidan needed to let Tony, Ralph and Bill know about the new cape on the block. For all she could tell, this new guy had powers equal to hers. And to make it that much worse... he seemed to have a better handle on how to use them! The need to pass along information won out over the need to be cautious.

Despite her nerves, she took three steps and leapt into the sky.

Once in the air, Aidan felt nominally better. The open feeling of flight was preferable to the closed in nature of the canyon.

Aidan planned to head south for a bit then circle west and head up the coast back into L.A. She needed to be careful not to buzz the U.S./Mexico border. The last thing she needed today was to cause an international incident. Stretching out her palms and fingers, Aidan picked up speed and was over Phoenix in a matter of minutes. With her thoughts focused on the flight path back to L.A., she nearly missed the familiar sound of flight coming up behind her fast. Crossing her wrists, She flipped upside down and looked like she was performing a backstroke as she scanned the sky behind her. Off in the distance she spotted the black suit trailing her and gaining quickly.

The form of her adversary was not the only one in the sky though...


	9. Chapter 8

The great thing about being a long term FBI agent was not only having built enough connections to know who to go to for favors, but having the seniority to call them in as well. So when Maxwell came back into the pit after leaving only 10 minutes earlier with a smug smile on his face, Villacana knew something was up.

"Grab your jacket there Villicana," he ordered in a no nonsense tone. "Oh, and if you packed a lunch... better bring it too." Tony did what he was asked, but hated it when he was ordered by Maxwell. It made him feel like he was back in high school again. He had went a long way to prove to Maxwell that he wasn't the same "meatball head" he was in his youth. Grumbling he quickly grabbed his field jacket and followed Bill out of the pit. Jogging to catch up, he

barely made into the elevator before the doors closed. Bill punched the button for the second basement level and that made Tony frown. The only thing down on that level was the equipment room, affectionately known as "The Locker."

'_Why would Maxwell want to go down there?_' Tony thought.

Exiting the elevator, the pair set off down the empty hall. Stopping at the door, he knocked before trying the handle. When it turned, Bill gave a quizzical look over his shoulder. The grin that broadened over Bill's face was like a kid in a candy store.

Everyone at the bureau knew of Bill Maxwell's predilection against technology. It was near legendary at the Los Angeles offices. He still used a lever and ribbon typewriter in his own office. So seeing him grin upon setting foot in the equipment room was a little disturbing.

"Anybody home?" Bill called out into the room. He could see that it was lined with a multitude of nearly everything that could be used in a field operation. Row upon row of shelves and lockers lined the cavernous space, which easily spanned the entire square footage of the buildings dimensions.

Out of the rows of metal storage units came a voice. "What can I do for you agents?" it said In a friendly tone.

"Howdy there Cannell. How have you been locked away down here in the dungeon?" Bill said with a lift in his voice.

The person possessing the voice came out from between the shelves.

"Maxwell... You don't come down here very often." Cannell raised an eyebrow. "Never pegged you as a guy who cared for gadgets."

"Well... no, but In this case you have the things I need. Just the basics of a pair of field binoculars and a couple of flight helmets for Junior and me." Bill chuckled at the way Tony bristled at being called Junior.

Cannell disappeared around the corner and returned several minutes later with the requested items.

"Now you don't get to trashing these like you used to trash cars twenty five years ago," he said.

Bill just broke out in a grin that spanned the space between his ears. "You know it Cannell. Have them back like new in a jiffy," and turned on his heels, tossing one of the helmets at Tony.

"Let's head to the top of the hill," and winked at Cannell.

As they left the room, the Head of the equipment room went back to his desk and started writing on his typewriter. 'Always did prefer this style of writing.'

On the roof of the Federal building, a helicopter was waiting for them with the pilot finishing his preflight checks. The smile on Tony's face told the story of his excitement.

"How did you pull this one off Old Man?"

The older agent smiled. "Helps to build up a favor log that you can call in from time to time." Bill shouted as he approached the helicopter. "Though this one is gonna wipe out the last ten years from that list. Now let's go find us a set of Jammies."


	10. Chapter 9

Airman First Class Tom Benton was on the second hour of his shift. He transferred to Luke AFB only a few months ago. and quickly earned a promotion to his current position. As a radar operator, he was responsible for keeping watch over the Southwest U.S. and its airspace. The position was high visibility and often proved to be a career boost. It was also more of a challenge with air traffic picking up significantly during daylight hours. The first sign that this would be no ordinary shift was when the two blips appeared on screen.

The speed the two UFO's traveled left Tom perplexed. The transition from subsonic to dead stop was too abrupt for any type of craft currently in production. It was something so far out of normal that the only thing he could think to do was alert his supervisor. By the time the duty sergeant came over, both blips had disappeared from the screen. Tom flashed through several settings trying to get back anything on his screen. For several agonizing minutes, Tom tried everything he knew about radar to figure out where his bogeys went. The supervising sergeant was straightening when one of the mystery blips suddenly came back on screen... though it was nearly two miles from the point where it went to ground. The blip began a southward vector that would take it to the west of the base. The duty sergeant was in the midst of notifying the duty officer when the second blip came back as well. This one was a bit north, coming out of the Hoover Dam region and picking up speed. The first blip had stabilized at just under mach one when the second blip appeared. The duty sergeant picked up the red phone that hung on the wall next to Toms station and spoke into the receiver.

"Scramble ready one and two.."

Aidan had taken to flight out of necessity. Whenever she leapt into the air she was aware she needed to avoid detection. She reasoned she likely caused more than a few UFO reports over Southern California. Little did she know the U.S. Air Force was watching her as she made towards Tucson.

Aidan flew on her back to get a better look behind her. Aside from the black suited opponent, there were two fighters coming up towards them.

"Oh, terrific," she groaned. She needed a way out of this scenario fast. Avoiding the black suit was one thing. Dodging two jets was something else completely!

The two fighters rose quickly to intercept her and the other suit. As they closed, they split with one in pursuit of her and one going after the other flyer. With them divided up, she realized they would be easier to avoid. Suddenly, a plan sprung to her mind.

Aidan crossed her wrists and rolled back to her front. She reached for the horizon harder than she could remember. The leap to hypersonic speeds left her momentarily dizzy and disoriented. There was also a minor ringing in her ears from the air pressure changes. But she had left the jet far behind her.

The pilot was coming up on his target. He could just make out the small object. For all intents, it looked like a human figure. He brought up his heads-up and saw that it was travelling at just under Mach 1. As he was nearing it, he could just make out the look of a female. It also appeared she was in some type of red suit. He blinked several times, attempting to clear his vision. He watched in amazement as the small red target shot away from him. The pilot couldn't take his eyes from the spot where his target was moments ago.

He was shaken from his stupor by the sound of ground control.

"Ready one, what was that you said? Repeat ready one." It was then he realized he had cursed into the open channel of his radio. Quickly he came back,

"Sorry about that Luke, did that register on your screens?"

"We're not sure what we just registered ready one, but ready two is still in pursuit of his target." The voice came through the intercom. "Turn back and assist Ready Two as needed."

"Roger that Luke."

He lingered just a second more staring off into the distance.

Banking his fighter hard left, he powered up the throttle. Whatever that was, there was another one out there to be dealt with.

The sudden acceleration caused Aidan's stomach to flip a few times before settling down. She put a good amount of distance between her and the fighter before heading back to deal with the black suit. Still maintaining her speed, she pulled back her arm and leaned into the turn. The maneuver sent a chill of exhilaration through her. She had never pushed the suit this hard before. But then again, these were unusual circumstances.

"I didn't know the suit could manage such a quick reaction," she thought, but then shook her head. Aidan felt fatigue creeping in around the edges of her awareness. She had never thought to find the limits of her endurance.

Gritting her teeth, she pulled in tight as she came out of the turn. She felt the wind pick up speed around her face. Knowing she had to get back fast, Aidan increased to nearly twice the speed of sound.

It took no time for her to backtrack to where the black suit was. Aidan pulled her arms tightly against her and decelerated with a jolt. Her attention was laser focused on the scene unfolding in front of her. Both fighters were approaching the floating figure in black from different angles. She had a momentary flashback to her World War II college history class and recognized a classic pincer maneuver.

From her vantage point, it appeared that the three combatants would collide. Aidan had to change the course of the closest fighter to avert disaster.

"_Don't these guys see that they are going to hit each other?_" And dived for the plane.

Aidan flew for the tail of the aircraft. She stayed above the super heated jet exhaust. Her first notion was to come up to the canopy and wave the pilot off but thought better. The sight of a flying girl might cause more problems to an already messy situation.

She was going to have to do this herself.

Aidan placed herself at the tip of the tail fin and grabbed hold of it. Gritting her teeth, she pushed down. The effect had the nose of the plane rising up and over where the black suit hovered. Aidan could see the fighter would miss the others by a hundred yards or so. It was close in aviator terms, but would rattle the cage of the pilots instead of leaving them both dead.

Aidan came to a near standstill as she saw the other plane was not changing its course. She needed to move either the fighter or the black suit.

Making her decision, she tilted forward and made for her target.

Tyler looked at the approaching jet and smiled.

"_Oh, this should be fun,_" he thought.

He pictured himself hovering in this spot until the last possible moment, then shoot straight up. This would be highly entertaining since the suit gave him far greater maneuverability than the fighter had.

He thought back to the Bugs Bunny cartoons he and Debra watched as kids. This little scene made him think of the one in which Bugs pretended to be a matador. he saw himself using his cape like Bugs did and laughed out loud at the absurdity of it.

Two weeks ago he couldn't imagine being this close to a working F-16. Now he was in the air with one!

This was just getting better and better.

He felt a pang of sorrow for the pilots. They had no idea who they were dealing with.

Tyler felt the jet pass over his head. He was so focused on the one plane coming at him, he didn't see the other one until the last second. The feeling of jet wash startled him as well as the sudden noise.

The first jet was nearly on top of him now. He could not afford any distraction at this point. If his timing was off by even a small amount, he faced getting hit in a head on collision. Tyler didn't think it would do much damage, if any at all, but he couldn't risk it. He tensed waiting for the right moment. He grinned at the thought of what the pilot's face would look like as he simply moved out of the way.

A flash of red shot from his right and disappeared under the approaching fighter. It was followed by a thunderous boom a second later.

Captain Darren Ridley had seen combat in the Persian Gulf and over Afghanistan. As a seasoned combat pilot he had seen many strange things over his tours of duty. This however, was something completely alien to him. For all intents and purposes, it looked like a person in a Halloween costume - and it was sitting in mid-air looking right at him.

minutes earlier, he and his wingman, Captain John Jackson, decided on dividing up the targets. Something that small was probably a drone that had came out of Edwards. But, two unidentified drones out this far was worth investigating.

Ridley watched his wingman split off after the other bogey. With orders to identify and report, they decided to divide the two UFO's. A few moments later, a muffled curse came over the comm channel. Ground had ordered Ready One back to assist him with his target. He wanted to ask Jackson what had happened, but he had his own object to deal with.

Watching the weapons targeting lock count down the distance, he activated his onboard cameras.

"_This could really be something for those super market tabloids!_" he chuckled to himself.

"I'll buzz this thing so close I'll tell you the color of its eyes..." he paused, then realized "That is if it has eyes?"

Ready One was on approach on a vector that would take it over the top of the bogie. Another thirty seconds and they could report back to Luke.

"Ready One, hold course... I'm gonna take a look at this things belly." Ridley told his wingman.

"Roger that Two... Whoa!" the pilot shouted into the comm. "The stick is fighting me!" "I'm being forced up and the stick is not responding."

Ground control interrupted. "Ready One, this is ground. Give me a read on your aileron positions and hydraulic pressure."

Ridley listened as he focused on the bogie in his flight path. He looked out his canopy scanning for Ready One.

Ridley had flown with Captain Jackson since flight school in Pensacola. In all that time, he had never heard of the pilot breaking out in so much as a glisten over his brow. Even during tactical strikes in Iraq he always maintained his cool. That made the surprise he heard over the comm much more concerning.

"Arrow, you're close enough for me to check your underside," he spoke into the headset as he grabbed for his binoculars. Ridley had an unobstructed view of the underbody of the plane. Nothing looked wrong from his vantage point.

As he was about to cue up his helmet mic, he caught the flash of red.

Something was attached to the tail fin of Ready One. He refocused his binoculars and nearly dropped them. What he saw was beyond all comprehension

He pulled the magnifiers away and blinked several times. There was no way he had actually saw what he thought he saw.

Holding onto the rear aileron was what looked like a person dressed in red.

Ready One appeared to be climbing as the object separated from the fuselage and came to a near rest. Ridley saw that One would easily clear the original bogie now by quite a bit. He checked his position relative to the first target. It would be in visual range in a moment. When he turned back to the red UFO, it was no longer there.

"Luke this is Ready Two, you are not going to believe what's happening up here." he said slowly into his communication system.

"Go ahead Two. Do you have an eye on Ready One?"

"Roger that Luke," the hesitation clear in his voice. "But, I'm not sure what I'm seeing."

"Do you see anything that's causing Two to be unresponsive?"

"I'm not entirely sure Luke... But it looked like a person." Ridley replied.

The silence seemed to stretch for a long moment.

"You want to repeat that Two?" Even ground control sounded skeptical.

"From what I could see, it looked like something hanging on Arrow's tail fin." Jackson said, not even believing his own words.

"But it appears to have come off now and I've lost visual contact with it," he reported. "I'm approaching my primary target now Luke."

"Follow standard reconnaissance procedures and do not engage unless provoked," came his orders.

"Roger that Luke." And he put his full attention back to the black object in his path.

Suddenly the nose of his jet nudged downward.

"Luke, now my bird is flying funny." he said into the comm.

"Define 'funny' ready 2?" Inquired ground control.

He felt the nose of his fighter dipping despite trying to pull back on his control yoke.

"She wants to go nose down." Tension was present in his voice. "I can't get her to respond to the stick."

"Can you get a visual on your bogie Two?"

He glanced up from his instrumentation and out his windscreen. The sight of the black human shape in the distance did not phase him at this point.

"Whatever it is, it just seems to be standing still in mid-air, doing nothing." His mind raced with the possibilities surrounding this strange mission.

"I think that other bogey has me!"

He tried banking the jet to either side with no effect. Ridley looked up just as the figure in black soared over his canopy by a good margin.

In a moment of reaction, he pushed hard on the yoke and he fell into a power dive.

"Luke, I have control back. As soon as I was past my target, control came back," he said with relief.

When Ridley circled back a few minutes later, there was no sign of the targets to be found.

"Arrow, are you alright? he spoke into the mic.

"Yeah, but I have to put back down. My bird is acting sluggish since I got back control." he said.

"Roger that, I'm on your heels."

Ridley flipped back to ground and said. "I'm not sure what happened here, but both targets are off radar. We're coming in for debriefing Luke," he reported.

He switched back to the inter patrol frequency. "This gonna be one hell of a debriefing," and sagged slightly in his seat.

Tyler saw the red blur disappear under the jet coming towards him. It was on course to pass just to his left. He was still going to play chicken with the pilot when the fighter took a dip downward.

"She is starting to annoy me!" His tone layered with anger.

Tyler saw the pilot looking around for the reason his plane was losing altitude.

"_Didn't she know there wasn't any danger of them colliding with each other._" he thought, then growled.

Now she had gone and spoiled his only moment of fun so far this afternoon.

"_Oh, is she going to pay for this!_"

The combination of the black suit and the jet jockeys was starting to get on Aidan's nerves. When it was just her and him, it was a matter of fight or flight. With the introduction of the military it now became a danger to others. She knew that it had to come to a conclusion quickly or someone was going to get killed.

The thought of a death caused from her actions in the suit blanched her soul.

No one had ever received more than a severe bump on the head from her having no other choice but to knock them out. And that was limited to the unruly ones during arrests. A death on her watch would be cause to hang up the suit.

The first priority was to get both her and black suit out of the immediate area. She knew her adversary was prone to anger and she would use that to her advantage. If she got him angry enough, he would follow her anywhere. And right now that needed to be away from here!

Aidan saw his attention was focused on the receding jet. With his back turned to her, she would use the element of surprise. She aimed her arms up and quickly flew behind him. Aidan tapped him on the shoulder. Startled, he quickly spun to meet her gaze.

The youthful look of the black suit still shocked Aidan. He couldn't be much older than many of her students at Whitney.

They floated motionless, looking at each other for a second. Aidan blinked back to her senses and saw the dark circles under his eyes. Those hazel eyes held a haunted look to them.

Aidan knew this wasn't the time to psychoanalyze her foe. She needed to bait him into giving chase.

She placed her thumb on the tip of her nose and extended the other fingers upwards. His eyes widened in surprise as she blew him a raspberry. The gesture threw him off balance in a bit of disorientation.

"That's got him thinking other than 'kill me'," she thought, then something else came to her mind.

Aidan pulled her hand away from her nose and put it palm down between their faces. She waved it slightly while raising then lowering her arm. The young man followed her every move. Turning her hand on its side, she repeated the same waving motion, this time moving it left and right. When the hand was back between them, she faced her palm towards him. Aidan finally curled her fingers in and out like she was waving goodbye. Curling the last time, she threw all her might into a punch straight into the black suit's face.

Her fist felt like it hit iron and she felt the impact all the way into her shoulder. Pushing through the pain, she saw the teen flying away while on his back.

After only a few seconds, he showed signs of recovery. It would take only a few more for him to regain control. Then he would tear off after her.

Or so Aidan hoped.

Aidan saw his head lift enough to look straight into her face. The look in his eyes was of absolute hatred. She had seen a look like that once before when a student was humiliated in front of his classmates. While nothing bad happened, she knew that it could easily have if Ralph had not diffused the situation. She wished he was here now.

Aidan knew that the dark flyer was on the verge of losing control. It also meant he was susceptible to mistakes. Hopefully his youth would serve her in getting the both of them out of here.

Aidan flipped on her back. Looking over her shoulder, She waved again at the black suit and reached for the horizon. As she picked up speed, she banked for the west coast and the three people who could help her.


	11. Chapter 10

Aidan recognized where she was as soon as she passed over the Arizona/California border. Tony and her had made a fairly big bust here a couple of years ago... Oddly enough around the time when her brother was set to marry a space toddler. The moment of nostalgia almost took her away from the task at hand. Aidan needed to get back to familiar ground soon and take back complete control of the situation. She needed Tony's advice on what to do with the new player on the block. He needed to be filled in on the events of the past several hours. The pace of the flight helped her to focus on the task of problem solving. Tapping in on the suit's ability to enhance short term memory, she compiled a brief summary that she could relay to Tony.

Aidan kept a part of her awareness focused behind her. She knew that the strange teen was somewhere behind her, but the urge and need to get to Tony had been the focus of her attention. Aidan knew that the only way to do this was going to be by getting to the FBI headquarters in Los Angeles.

Seeing that she was now over Palm Springs, she momentarily allowed herself to remember the time she had taken a relaxing spring break down here just before taking the job at Whitney High. A sound like thunder came from behind her , yet there was no cloud in the sky. A prickly sensation shot up her spine. Not wanting to simply dismiss it, she started to roll over for a rear view when she heard a high pitch whistle coming in from the same direction. Getting higher and higher as she rolled over, the jagged shape of red stone coming at her made her scream before throwing herself back. Aidan completed a backwards somersault in midair as the rock sailed over her.

"Now this is getting ridiculous!" she said out loud. "How many more of these things am I going to have to dodge today?"

The dark spot off in the distance was closing again. Aidan knew that something was going to have to be done now before someone was hurt.

But apparently that was too late now, as Aidan paled at the sound of something heavy landing on metal. The disorientation of the attack had caused her to lose track of the projectile. Whipping around, she glanced down and saw the small boulder had crashed on the back half of a car in the parking lot of a local grocery store. The screams from the people fleeing the smoking rock overrode her mission to get to Tony. Angling down, she made a bolt for the boulder. Landing almost on top of it, Aidan quickly searched for signs that anyone was in the car. Hearing a moan from the other side of the crushed vehicle, she saw a woman trapped in the driver side.

Aidan moved to the side of the boulder and put all her might into rolling it away and off the car. She breathed in deep and drew in the faint smell of iron.

"Oh not now!" she thought at the same time the woman let out a loud moan. "You got that one right sister," she said through gritted teeth. She fought against the ring of blackness that hovered at the edges of her perception.

"Just don't look down... Just don't look down." she chanted as the solid chunk of rock rolled over the remains of the back window.

With a final shove, the desk sized stone rolled off the twisted wreck and into the aisle of the parking lot. The woman emitted a much louder moan that would have been a scream if she was any more awake. Aidan had no choice but to look down. She needed to gauge what else she could do.

The back of the car was a crushed mass of metal. The driver had been pushed forward into the steering column by the force of the impact. Aidan grabbed the front of the roof just over the windshield and pulled with all her might. The top peeled away like the lid of a sardine can and ripped clean from the chassis. A fresh wave of the scent of blood nearly made her pass out. Knowing that seconds counted in these situations, Aidan grabbed the top of the driver's door and pulled hard. The door came free from the hinges with a pop and a flick of her wrist sent it several feet behind her.

Aidan risked a glance down to assess if there would be anything else she could do before she left. Catching sight of the crimson caused her head to swoon. The dark rings drew closer together in her vision and she stumbled backwards, failing to hear the sound of metal scraping behind her. Her dizziness spun her around and around like the Tea Cup ride at Disneyland. She felt the wretch at the back of her throat as pain exploded against the side of her body.

Tyler dropped the door of the compact car. Despite everything that had happened today, he still stood there looking dumbstruck. The aliens hadn't lied about the strength that he would possess. Tyler felt as though he barely touched the blond woman in the red suit and she was knocked backwards a good five hundred feet.

He looked down at the other woman that was in the car. She was bloody and not sounding very good. For a moment, he contemplated helping her. His memories flashed back to the hospital after his mother and sister were killed in the explosion. Was this how the paramedics found his mother? Barely alive and holding on? The hospitals counselor and doctor assured him that she died instantly from the force. But, Tyler always held a feeling that she wouldn't have let go of life until she knew he was safe.

The lady let out another gurgling sound and her eyes fluttered open. For a moment she locked her gaze with Tyler. His resolve faultered and he moved to aid the suffering woman.

"Don't go near her!" a voice from behind him yelled. "What did you do to that other lady that saved her?"

Tyler turned slowly in the direction of the loud bystander. A man was approaching him with a look of determination on his face. He looked quite big, in the manner of one of the muscle heads you see in fitness magazines. Fists clenched at his sides, he came up fast and was face to face with Tyler in a second.

"Tell me what you did to her!" the guy demanded.

"Or you'll do what?" Tyler responded smugly.

The oversized man grabbed Tyler by the shoulders and it felt like he grabbed a steel beam. The shocked look on the body builder's face caused Tyler to chuckle.

"You're not the only one who works out I guess." and with a small nudge in his direction, the larger man was sent sprawling to the ground. Tyler was about to show this guy more of who was the bigger man, when a sound caught his attention. It was the sound of something on the roof stirring.

"You caused me to get distracted," and Tyler gave a mental shove that pushed the man careening across the lot until he was stopped by the tire of an SUV.

"Next time stay out of my way," and he made a dramatic pose out of pointing his finger at the man.

Turning back to the store, he took three steps and launched himself up to the roof.

In the three years since receiving the suit, Aidan had never took a beating while wearing it like the one she had experienced today. Even the incident with the bear had been nothing compared to the menace of the black suit. The thought that she had come up against something that she might not be able to gain victory over sent a wave of fear through her. The green guys had never prepared her for the possibility of another suit wearer coming up against her, much less that one even existed. She had always thought that it was her destiny to save the planet or at least a few lives from things like drug dealers and the random nuclear Hterrorist. That alien toddler that had brainwashed her family last year was something outside the norm and didn't figure into her regular view of her mission with the suit.

The sound of the sirens came to her like she was trapped in a tunnel and her head rung like a gong. She felt the drag of each breath into and out of her lungs. er limbs tingled and her mind screamed for her to open her eyes. Her head throbbed at the slightest pressure and rebel against any movement at all.

She forced her eyes to open only a crack and the brightness of the light seemed strange to her.

Aidan ran a mental checklist of herself. She sensed nothing was broken, but she was going to be sore in the morning. A slite tap with her hand and it confirmed her suspicion that she was on her back. Steeling herself against the pain she knew would tear through her, she opened her eyes the remainder of the way.

Aidan found herself looking up at the sky of the California desert. She hauled herself up to a sitting position to a cacophony of complaints from her body. She saw she had hit the store sign and passed clean through it. The ringing in her ears came from her head hitting the air conditioning unit on the roof of the building.

As she pulled herself to her feet, a silhouetted figure leapt onto the edge of the roof.

Aidan rolled her eyes and then winced as the teen struck a villanous pose straight out of a comic book.

"You've gotta be kidding me?" .

Aidan winced as her head protested against speaking. The thought of spending a month in a soundproof room sounded like paradise.

A rhythmic pulsing caught the attention of the costumed figures at the same time. A quick glance over the shoulder of the black suit gleened the image of an airborne vehicle coming in their direction... and fast!.

The shape rapidly grew into the familiar lines of a helicopter.

Despite the staccato thumping of the blades, she could make out her name being called from the craft. She recognized over the din the voice of her partner. A sense of relief washed over her that he was here. And that was coupled with astonishment at his finding her at all. The astonishment turned to horror as she realized the other man was also listening and apparently found a new target.

"Aidan?" came from her black suited foe. A smirking grin spread across his face as he hopped off the ledge.

Then he turned and took the first of three steps.

Time slowed around Aidan. She was laser focused on the figure now poised to take the second step. Her senses became hyper aware and the suit had an electric feel to it. She could feel the energy building within the red and black material. Since the day the suit chose her to carry on its mission, Aidan had never been more sure of purpose. She came up off the rock and tile roof, launching herself at the black suit.

As his foot connected... so did Aidan.

Aidan became a human projectile. With the sole intent of protecting her partner, She hit the target like a freight train.

Aidan felt like she connected with the side of a mountain. The fact that earlier in the day she had actually done so was not lost on her.

This time though, the mountain moved!


	12. Chapter 11

Bill Maxwell never liked flying. In his opinion the airborne thing was better left to those born with wings. To keep from thinking of how far he was off the ground, he focused on scanning local emergency bands. Coming in over Palm Springs, he began to hear radio chatter about a car being crushed by a boulder in a grocery store parking lot. Bill picked up his visual scanning of the area ahead of him for signs of first responders. He also shunted the air traffic back to Tony's headset. When the emergency operator made mention of a figure in a red costume , he quickly glanced over his shoulder at the junior officer. Making eye contact, they both mentally acknowledged the only source of such a report. Turning back around, Bill saw the flashing red lights of emergency vehicles in the distance off to the right of the helicopter.

Bill motioned the pilot to take them over towards the area the ground responders were heading. He could just make out a puff of smoke or debris not too far away. He reached back and tapped Tony on the knee and gestured for him to look out the front windshield. The top of the store was now visible and a gouge had been drawn in the roof. Bill could just see the hint of red emerging from the end of the trough. He also saw a figure standing on the edge of the building looking like a statue out of some superhero comic book. Tony almost knocked him into the door as he grabbed for the copter's external microphone.

He threw a look at Tony as he heard the man yell out the name of his unofficial partner. Bill went to take the microphone from Tony's hand, but stalled with what caught his attention on the roof of the building.

Tony couldn't believe what he was hearing over his headset. "A red costume and a car and a boulder!" he had heard coming over the scanner. Even before Bill looked at him he knew it was Aidan. But what was she doing all the way over here? he wondered, as the Last he heard from her, she was headed for the Hoover dam.

He was about to cue the intercom and ask Bill what they should do, when the senior agent tapped him on the knee. Looking up, he saw the cloud of smoke and took out his binoculars. Zeroing in on the rooftop of a store, he saw the cloud was debris stirred up by the impact of something on the surface. Zooming in, he saw the black cape of the suit flutter from behind an AC unit. From the look of it, Aidan had landed hard and tore a gap through the roof tiles. He saw an arm push its way out from the side and a familiar streak of dirty blonde locks came into sight. At the same time, what looked like another suited person vaulted up from the far side of the building. Only this one was in a black suit just like Aidan's! Zooming closer, he made out the angular symbol against a circular field of white emblazoned on his chest. Letting the binoculars fall, he blinked several times rapidly.

Tony's head had a hard time trying to make sense of what he was seeing. Aidan coming to on her back from a hard fall, some guy in black that seemed to have flown up to the roof, and multiple emergency vehicles rushing into the parking lot of the strip mall. Determined to get to the bottom of it all, he shoved past Maxwell to grab the helicopters loudspeaker handset.

"Aidan!" he called into the handset. Waiting for a breath, he repeated the call with a little more emphasis. He was not entirely sure what he expected to get in response, considering he was several hundred feet above and to the side of her... not to mention the rotor noise.

Relief came to him a little when she turned to look at them. And he was sure she had heard him. Just as quickly she turned towards the other figure as he hopped down off the wall. He turned his head towards her and then looked back at the copter. Tony's blood chilled from the action. But what happened next left Tony's mouth gaping open in shock.

The guy in black made a motion like Aidan did when she was taking off. But he never made the third and final step. A blur of red came out of nowhere and connected with the running figure. The sound of impact was loud enough to echo past the helio noise. It was like standing next to a lightening bolt hitting the ground and the collision sent the other suit flying off on an arc that would end several miles out of town.

Aidan flayed her arms and legs attempting to gain control over her fall. After making like a linebacker for the Pittsburg Steelers, she had not made the jump needed to take flight. Aidan was now out of control and in freefall.

"Oh, this is really gonna suck!" she said out loud.

Her momentum carried her over the remaining parking lot and towards a residential street. A momentary sense of relief came as she saw she wasn't going to hit asphalt, but even hitting grass at this speed was going to hurt.

At the last possible moment, she tucked her head into her arms and brought her legs up to her stomach while clenching her teeth in anticipation of the hard landing.

Her ribs contracted as the air was driven from her lungs by the impact. Aiden felt herself rising back up. The weightless sensation was odd after such a hard hit. The moment was short lived as the black rings around her vision closed in and the darkness enveloped her.

Tony swore that he was watching an over produced action movie. The sight of Aidan falling out of control, furthered the sense that this was unreal. In desperation he grabbed the seat in front of him. A barely audible "No" came from his mouth as the blood drained from his head.

He didn't know if it was the helicopter or him that was spinning. He barely made out the voice of Bill as he ordered the bird down in the area of where Aidan went down herself. Only the grip by the older agent on Tony's arm prevented him from leaping out after his partner.

Tony tore open the side door of the helicopter as soon as he felt the wheels touch down. Jumping to the ground he skidded to a halt as he caught sight of the crumpled form a few dozen yards away.

Bill was not a religious man by any stretch. The sight of Aidan falling out of control had him cross himself like his grandmother did when someone was in trouble. Following her trajectory, he saw she would land near a housing tract.

"Get us down there... NOW!" He ordered the bureau pilot.

He began the closest thing to a prayer the grizzled agent had come to since Ralph had been shot years ago. While Ralph had been healed by the aliens, The uncertainty of Ralph's outcome caused Bill to come the closest to losing control of his emotions. The thought of that day brought out the memories of the circumstances surrounding Aidan receiving the suit. When she nearly died it brought Ralph and Pam to the edge of despair. The suit had transferred ownership to Aidan and The green guys placed her into stasis. Again, just like with Ralph, the aliens had healed her wounds and restored her to health.

'Please let her be OK. I don't know how I could ever break it to Ralph and Pam if she doesn't make this,' he realized he had used Pam's name rather then the nickname "counselor" that he tagged her with decades ago. It only emphasized the weight of the situation to him.

Shaking the thought, he continued. '_If you little green guys can read my thoughts, I hope you made one tough set of jammies, cause she is gonna need 'em._'

He turned to look back at Tony and saw the junior agent had gone pale. With a glazed look in his eyes, he followed the downward arch of red and black. Seeing Tony's hand move for the door, Bill saw his eyes sharpen and took him by the arm.

"Sit back down Villicana, you ain't goin' nowhere until we're on solid ground."

He turned to the pilot about to push him to land the bird faster, but saw they were nearly down. seconds later, the bird touched ground with a slight bounce. Bill heard the door being ripped open and went for his own door. Opening it, he saw Tony skid to a halt as he saw the red ball laying in the middle of a residential driveway. The mark in the lawn only a few feet away told the story of her hitting there first, then bouncing to her present position.

"Oh God..."

"What the!?" and panic set in as Tyler came too to the look of teeth. Massive teeth. And he was inside them!

The panick made him punch up into the covering above him. Thinking this was some huge mouth that was eating him, he expected to hit soft, wet flesh. Instead, his hand went straight through concrete and plaster. Seeing there was enough room to wiggle out of the improvised cage, he grabbed the huge fangs at the front of the mouth and pulled.

Pulling himself and out into the open air, he faced the teeth and sat upright... and screamed again!

Looking back at him was something out of Jurassic Park. The red eyes of a T Rex bore down on his face. and it dawned on him the dino wasn't biting down.

Tyler began to place things together and came to the conclusion that he was inside a huge, life-size replica of the famous king lizard. Glancing over his shoulder, he could barely make out the chaos of the market center several miles in the distance.

At about the same time, his side ached where Aidan had made contact with him.

"Aidan?" he grinned. "You can sure pack a wallop there."

He pulled himself to the top of the tourist attraction's nose and stood. Looking around, he knew there were more people around then he wanted to deal with at this moment.

Stepping off, he fell feet first down the forty or so feet to the ground. Seconds before landing he threw his hands up and this slowed his descent. The action took effort and he suddenly felt very tired. It had been some time since he slept more than a few hours and he had exerted himself quite a bit today. Tyler knew he had to regroup and rest before he was ready to face the red suit girl again.

And he was certain they would meet again soon.

Stepping back, he took three steps and launched himself into the sky.

The crowd that had began to gather gasped when he continued into the air. The gasps turned to applause a second later. With a roar of cheers at his back, Tyler turned towards his cave.


	13. Chapter 12

Tony knelt beside the still form of Aidan. He was at a total loss of what to do. Every shred of training left his head as he looked at his partner.

He tentatively reached down and moved the hair that was covering her face. The severe bruising over her left eye and temple forced him to look away for a second. Over the time of their teaming, he had seen Aidan take several beatings. While in the suit, he had never seen her like this. Only the encounter with the bear came close to the way she looked right now. Nothing she had faced ever left marks like the ones she bore.

Leaning close to her ear, he hoped she could hear him.

"Cub?... talk to me Cub," he spoke softly. Tony was aware of how vulnerable they were especially as the sound of a helicopter landing was not exactly run-of-the-mill around here. The neighbors were bound to start coming out of their homes soon enough, and was thankful it appeared the residents of the driveway they were in were away. He needed to get her out of here and to someplace safe quickly.

"Aidan, come on now open those eyes,"

he said placing his hand on her back and did his best to feel it rise. He knelt down and tried to feel the exhale of breath through her nose.

Dread began to well deep from his center and he could feel no movement from her at all.

"Aidan... Cub! Don't you go leaving me now." He pleaded, tears forming in his eyes.

"We've been through too much for you to check out on me here," Tony said choking back the emotions battering him.

"Besides, what am I gonna tell Mr. and Mrs. H?" he placed his head near her face holding it in his hands.

"They'll never forgive me..." and he began to quietly sob.

The sneeze not only sent him toppling onto his side, but nearly stopped his heart.

"Aidan!" he shouted and carefully rolled her into a position on her back. He saw that she had slightly less marks on her right cheek. There was also the trace of blood near the corner of her mouth that was already drying.

Stirring, she let out a small moan. Though he knew it was from the pain she had to be in, Tony thought it was the most beautiful sound in the world. OK, he privately admitted it was second only to the sound of his kids' first cries in the hospital.

The sound of shuffling behind him broke the reverence of the moment.

"Is she OK Villicana? Bill said from behind him. Tony had forgotten all about anyone else being here with him. Pulling himself together he said.

"Not sure yet, but she is alive for sure!" He said, still trying to get a handle on what was going on before him.

"Aidan, can you hear me Cub? Now open those eyes and look at me!"

And he nudged her a little. Bill was now over his shoulder and looking at the prone body of his best friends' adopted daughter.

'And I thought Ralph taking a header with a train was bad,' Bill thought, then shook his head as he focused on the current scenario.

"Come on now Artie, we're gonna start drawing attention here any minute and this isn't the best scenario to begin with." Bill said matter of factly.

Bill surveyed the Prone body of Aidan and knew that she was not in the best of shape. He had saw Ralph take quite a few beatings, but never one that left much of a mark. Whatever that was on the roof with her must be something not to trifle with.

Tony gently shook her shoulder, "Come on Aidan, Maxwell is right, we have to get you out of here, before people see the magic underwear here and start to ask questions about you dropping out of the sky..."

As if on cue, the super suit began to shimmer and morph into the black jeans and red T-shirt with the familiar symbol on the front.

Tony and Bill looked at each other. They were surprised that the suit had morphed without Aidan being conscious. All the other times, she had been in control of the form it took.

"Could she have done that?" inquired Bill.

Tony shook his head. "Not sure. She normally says something and makes it change.

" Bill scratched his head, confused. "Artie didn't speak so..."

Tony finished the elder agent's thought. "Maybe some sort of failsafe mode set to camouflage its identity if Aidan loses consciousness?"

Bill shuddered, even now spooked by the suit's choice to add powers on its own will. "Well then, we're gonna have to play this all out by ear there Villacana. This is all new territory."

"Do you think she is OK to be moved?" mused Tony. "I think she may be OK, but there is no way of knowing."

Bill glanced out towards the noise of emergency vehicles. "Those sirens are sounding closer and I don't want to have to explain what the girl has to do with any of what's happening here," Bill stated, looking at the scene of Aidan's crash. "Not that I exactly understand it myself."

He straightened up, focusing. "My vote is to move her to the chopper and get back to HQ before we can't."

Tony couldn't argue with Bill's logic, and he privately acknowledged the wisdom of the elder agent. Gently, he scooped up Aidan and stood. He felt her tense slightly at the change in position. "I'm sorry Cub," he apologized, and pulling her close to his body, he set off at a trot to the waiting transport.

As he placed the injured woman down on the floor of the copter to get inside himself, he heard Bill talking to the pilot about what he had seen.

"Now the best thing to do in this scenario is to forget all of it. writing something that you didn't see in your log could earn you a no fly stamp on your pilot's license." Bill raised his eyebrows at the pilot. "So whatcha say there Chief, can you get us back to HQ pronto?" The pilot, not wanting to lose his job, nodded.

Bill glanced back and saw that Tony was now buckling Aidan into one of the jump seats. Her head was looking pretty unsteady atop her shoulders. It reminded him of bobble head night at Dodger Stadium. The only good thing he could see was her color looked a bit better since he saw her lying on that driveway.

Tony strapped himself in next to Aidan. He hooked an arm around her to keep her steady. There was no way he could lay her on the deck and keep her from bouncing around.

The look of concern was one that Bill could relate to. Every time Ralph went into a dangerous scenario without him there as backup, that same look would wash over his facade. The knowledge that Ralph was wearing a pair of "jammies" that granted him super powers didn't serve to settle his nerves any.

The helicopter lifted smoothly and turned towards Los Angeles for its flight back. Bill settled back for a terse hour long trip. He silently prayed once more for his best friends' goddaughter.


	14. Interlude

Interlude:

Tyler slept fitfully. The image of his mother and sister plagued his dreams.

"You can't afford to rest Tyler." His mothers transparent face spoke. You have to stop her."

The faced pixelated and reformed into the sweet features of Debra.

"You can't let her beat you. You have to be stronger than her."

There was a haunting sound in her voice. It kept fading in and out like the surf at the beach.

Momentarily Tyler was taken to a time not so long ago when his family had went to Ventura Beach. It was one of the hotter days of that summer and his family had gone on the spur of the moment. His dad had called in sick to work and his mother packed up some snacks and water bottles for a day near the ocean. It was memorable in that Debra had chosen that trip to assert her independence in the form of a two piece swim suit. Even though they had only recently became teenagers, Their father still thought of them as little kids. He remembered his dad disappearing for a while and coming back with a shirt for Debra to put over the swim suit. All she had wanted to do was get a good start to her summer tan and ended up wearing a huge crab on her front side the rest of the day.

The family packed up and were walking back to the car. Tyler was ribbing Debra about the shirt.

"Come on 'lil sis… don't be so… Crabby!" and started cracking up. The small jokes kept coming until she finally turned to him and gave him that glare. Tyler backed up a few feet and threw up his hands in submission.

"Hey, at least I didn't start in on the Spongebob jokes!" and flashed his trademark smile.

"but while we're on the subject, how exactly did a crab get a whale for a daughter? I mean, how would that even be possible?" and looked right into Debra's eyes with the most serious expression plastered across his face. He waggled his eyebrows after a second and his sister couldn't suppress the laughter.

His parents turned their heads and smiled at each other at the way their kids were getting along.

Tyler was getting into the car when the door handle was pulled from his grasp. The back end of the car lurched up accompanied by the sound of crunching metal. His mother gasped and Debra let out a scream as they saw a lady standing on the hood of their car. The lady was outfitted in some type of costume done in red with a black cape. She had blond hair and was only a little bigger than his mother in stature. The dark circles around her eyes gave a menacing look to her. She slowly turned her head to each side surveying the people in front of her. As she turned her gaze to Tyler, she locked eyes with the youth.

"You weren't strong enough to save them then…" and as she jumped down from the remains of the car's front end she continued, "and you aren't now!" She smiled in a way that sent chills to Tyler's soul.

Debra let out a scream that imprinted itself on his mind for eternity. The lady in the red suit grabbed Tyler's mother by the front of her shirt. With a flourish she was hurled into the air. Tyler went to move but was stopped by the feeling of running through chest high mud. His mothers screams faded out as she disappeared from sight over the horizon. They were immediately taken up by Debra who was right behind her before all this began.

"And you… you little brat!" The costumed figure said through clenched teeth.

Tyler reached out to stop her.

"No!" He shouted. To his ears it was muffled.

Debra had a look of panic in her eyes as the lady took her by the shoulders. She hit at her and bellowed for her brother.

"Tyler… Tyler… Help me!"

He screamed at the top of his lungs just to have no sound emit from his mouth. He stretched to leap over the car, but it was as if he were made of lead. He could barely move through the soup of this nightmarish vision.

"Tyler, why won't you help me!?" Debra beckoned.

The lady in red looked over at Tyler.

"And just like before… You won't save her either." And smiled.

Holding Debra with her right hand, she let loose with a vicious backhand from her left sending Debra careening out into the water. Her form hit the water with a violent slap that reverberated through Tyler's bones. She didn't surface again.

The lady turned to face Tyler.

"You see, you have no true power. If you used your suit, you may have been able to save your family.." She came close enough to pat Tyler on the cheek. "But now that will never happen… Too bad." And she turned, took three steps and flew off into the sky.

Tyler was free just as soon as she was gone from sight. He stood panting with tears streaking his face. The sobs were coming strong and the anger sparked into existence. He didn't know what to do.

"Quit your balling over there you little girl!" came his dad's voice.

In the middle of all this, Tyler had forgotten where his father was. He scanned and found him sitting in a folding lawn chair with a glass of amber liquid in his right hand. His clothes had changed from the tank top and shorts of the beach and was now replaced with a sweat stained shirt and faded jeans. Looking up, he guzzled down half the contents of the glass.

"Now shut your mouth and get me another Scotch." And put the glass out for Tyler to take it.

Tyler could feel his face grow hot and he was shaking with anger.

"What? You think changing into your pajamas is gonna make you any tuffer?" and he burst out laughing.

Tyler glanced down at himself to find he had somehow changed into the black power suit like the one the lady had worn.

"Yeah, If I had been wearing this before, I could have stopped her from letting mom and Debra die." Tyler spoke softly to himself.

"Yeah, yeah… stop the cry-baby routine and get me my drink." He Nick said with a slur to his speech.

Tyler let the fury grow into a raging inferno. He walked over to his father who was slumped into the chair. The scene now morphing into the trailer they had lived in the last 3 years. The scent of the filthy place infused every inch of the construction. Tyler took the glass from his father's hand and looked at it.

"Never again." He murmered.

"What did you say?!" Nick asked in annoyance.

"I said never again!" and he smashed the glass against the side of his father's head. The contents of the shattered glass pouring all over the seated figure of Nick.

"Never again!" Tyler shouted. He felt the thought enter his mind and suddenly he felt the heat leave his body.

With a thought, Tyler set his father on fire. Watching the flames consume Nick, both were reflected in the tear filled eyes of his son.

"This is why I gave you the power suit Tyler." The voice said next to him. Tyler never broke eye contact with the burning figure seated in the chair.

"To give you the ability to deal out true justice. Justice that those in charge of this world do not have the courage to dispense." His tones wavering in a hypnotic pattern. "But before you can meet the challenges of ridding the planet of those that bar justice from occurring, you must first take on their champion."

The burning form of Nick Ellis then changed into the form of Aidan Hinkley.

"Yes… she must be destroyed."

"Yes… destroyed." Tyler droned.

With a snap, Tyler sat upright. Breathing rapidly, his room was cold. Except it was not his room. It was the cave he had taken refuge in after being set back to Earth by his alien host. Blinking several times, he fought to clear the fog of the dream, only to find he couldn't.

"She is the only thing standing in my way." He thought out loud.

The alien smiled as he exited the cerebral imaging room.


End file.
